For What You Are
by Nita.xx
Summary: Jayne Perrin - Professional Slayer, with a secret.    Kara James - High-school student, also with a secret.    Evil Vampires - They don't have any; they're just out to kill everybody.
1. Chapter 1

Jayne drove down the empty highway at a hundred and twenty miles an hour. Her hair flew behind her as wind buffeted through her open window.

"Every time," she murmured to herself as she reached over to the passenger seat with her right hand. "Every single time they make me run. As soon as this guy's dead I quit. I was not cut out for this." She picked up her phone and speed dialled Sam, her roommate.

"Hello," she answered. 

"Yo Sam," Jayne replied, swerving as she saw a shadow in her rear view mirror. "I'm going to have to hand in my resignation letter as your roommate." 

"What! Why?" 

"You know that stuff I said that I'd gotten out of, it came back to haunt me. So I'm skipping town. I left money for rent in the drawer next to my bed and I'll send for the rest of my stuff as soon as I'm there-Shit!" 

She felt the trunk of her collapse as a heavy mass landed on it. Jayne attempted to shake them off but they held tight. 

"All right Sam, I've got to go. It's been nice knowing you." 

And Jayne hung up; oblivious to the ranting that Sam was keeping up on the other end of the line. 

"All right then," she muttered taking her foot off the accelerator and slamming down the brakes. As the car slowed to a halt, she stepped out and stared at the person standing on the roof of her car. 

"You know," she said as she pulled a stake from her boot. "It's really quite conspicuous when you hitch lifts on the top of cars." 

"And it's really not attractive when you go around stealing people's century-old relics," the guy said as he jumped down onto the bitumen.

"I shouldn't have to tell you again. That was your girlfriend. You know? The one you dumped because she thought a human guy was hot." 

"She was cheating on me!" he exclaimed in anger, stepping forward. As his face distorted and his fangs began to protrude, Jayne grasped her stake in her hand bringing it up to eye level and said to him, "You killed him and her as well as the guy's girlfriend. Innocent humans; that breaches the code of this region." 

"What are you going to do little girl? Hurt me with your little stick?" 

Jayne swung at him with her foot, tripping him. Without even a second's hesitation she'd plunged the stake into his heart. He smirked but within a few seconds he was dead - for the second time. She quickly dragged his body to her car and after pulling the dented trunk up, she put him in there and shut it quickly.

Getting back into the driver's seat, Jayne once again put her foot on the accelerator, driving down the highway aimlessly until she saw the turn off for Mystic Falls...


	2. Chapter 2

Kara closed the car door behind her as she stepped out onto the grass. The car park was empty and she had the feeling that she was the first person here; before even the teachers. She wasn't nervous, moving was second nature to her and she didn't feel any need to explore the school grounds. There wasn't anything special here. It was just another school that she was going to coast her way through.

The cold air hit her face, but she ignored it and went to find a tree to sit under and quietly read until the rest of the school arrived. Being something that she rarely had time for, reading offered her an escape from her hectic life – one which she would willingly take at any opportunity.

As she immersed herself in the story, she found the world around her falling away…that was, until she heard a tree branch crack behind her. Immediately, Kara jolted herself out of her stupor and turned around sharply seeing another boy around the other side of the tree quickly doing his trig homework. Staring over his shoulder, she said aloud, "Why are you doing trigonometry when you quite obviously fail at it."

The boy's head jolted up to see her looking at his books with quite obvious distain. Kara hated any form of maths with a passion – mainly because she couldn't be bothered.

"This isn't my homework," he replied quickly, "This is supposed to be the homework I'm doing for that guy over there." He pointed towards a tough looking guy standing by his Mercedes in the now crowded parking lot.

"Is he paying you?" Kara asked curiously, if the price was right she'd probably even do maths homework for someone.

"No," the kid replied softly, obviously really scared. "But if I do the homework then I don't get my brains bashed in."

"I'm guessing he's too stupid to notice your writing down the wrong answers? Why is he even doing trig then?"

"It makes him seem smart I guess. But the teachers aren't falling for it. The only reason he's still there is because the teacher's don't have a genuine reason for kicking him out."

"And you're trying to give them one," Kara said, nodding in agreement. "I like it."

"Maybe I shouldn't," the guy replied, moving to change the answers.

"No way kid," Kara responded quickly, whipping the book from his hands and walking across the grass ignoring the warnings coming from behind her.

"Here's your homework from that kid over there," she said with a wide smile. "And by the way, he's not doing your work anymore."

"Is that really so honey?"

The words didn't affect her but it was almost like reflex. Her hand swung out and a second later, the guy was clutching his stomach, doubled over in agony.

"He's not doing you're work anymore," Kara replied evenly, dropping his book on the ground in front of him. As he started to get back up he moved to retaliate towards her Kara caught his arm and twisted him against his car. "And never call me honey, EVER, again."

She released him before walking back over towards the boy who stood in shock underneath the tree. "He won't be bothering you anytime soon," Kara said.

"How did you do that?" the boy asked in astonishment.

Kara shrugged, "I guess I've had a fair bit of practice at my old school."

"I thought you looked new," the guy said putting out his hand. "I'm Kale."

"Kara James," she replied taking his hand and shaking it. She picked up her bag and books before walking up to the front entrance to the school next to Kale.

"Senior?" he asked.

"I wish," she sighed. "They really think I'm too old to even be in eleventh grade, but I love bludging."

He nodded, "And your accent…English?"

Kara smiled in response, "Well spotted. I've been trying to get rid of it for years, unfortunately it sticks."

"It's not too unfortunate, it makes you different. Always a good thing."

"In high school?" Kara asked incredulously. "Impossible."

"Ah," he responded. "I see your point. Well, I guess if you want to make a good first impression, hanging out with the nerd isn't going to get you anywhere. If you go around that corner you'll get to the office."

"Thanks Kale," Kara replied quickly as people filed past them. "I guess I'll see you later."

"Maybe," he replied. "Nice to meet you Kara James." He walked off in the opposite direction while Kara found herself gravitating towards the office. But with students walking in all directions, it seemed inevitable that she would drop her books.

They splayed outwards but nobody who walked past bent to help her. And all she could mutter was, "This is Hell. I knew there was a reason I hated high school."

"Well it looks like someone's got a case of teenage angst."

Kara felt shock make her heart skip a beat and she found herself looking up and staring into light eyes which stared back at her. The man's hands held her books out to her in a neat orderly pile.

"You're a bit old to be in school aren't you?" Kara said recovering from her shock when she realised it wasn't a student. He looked at her with an equally snarky look as if he knew something she didn't.

"You're a bit too British to be in school aren't you?" he replied in the same tone.

"No," Kara replied quickly as she walked past him into the office. "I am exactly British enough to be in school. I would say you're not British enough, but the fact that we're in America kind of throws that back in my face."

She waited by the door as a senior finished talking with the lady at the office. After being given everything by the administration lady, Kara turned around to see the guy still standing behind her.

"Why are you still here?" she asked in wonder. If he wasn't supposed to be in school, why the hell _was_ he still here?

"Could you please give this to Stefan," the man said, handing the lady a small bag. "And I'm leaving, now," he added to Kara.

She watched him walk out before walking out herself. Staring after him she found herself wondering –

Who the hell was that?


	3. Chapter 3

Jayne sat in the bough of a tree as she swung her silver stake dangerously from side to side, holding it only by two fingers. With a sigh, she stood up effortlessly, the branch not even groaning under her weight. Closing her eyes she dropped the stake into the river that ran below her and turned her back.

Jumping down from the limb of the tree, she found herself walking along a dirt road back towards town. It's over, was all she could think, Finally.

"Young girls shouldn't be walking down dark roads alone at night."

She spun around in astonishment. A man looked at her with dark eyes and a disfigured face. Lines spread out from his eyes and Jayne found herself backing away with no weapon. He sped forward to push her out of the way at an inhuman speed, but she dodged him, seeing his move a thousand times and anticipating what happened next. Jayne ran towards the side of the road and broke a stick off the side of a tree. She pushed off the side of the same tree and launched herself towards the vampire forcing the stick into his heart and twisting it with a grunt. Jayne saw something fall from his grasp as he died with a smile on his face.

As she hauled him off the road and dumped him in the bushes, Jayne stared constantly at the lit up phone. The blue backlight shone eerily along the dark road and as she went to reach for it, she saw that it was still in a call.

Curiously, Jayne held the phone up to her ear, expecting to hear silence on the other end. But boy did she get a surprise.

"We're coming for you slayer," a girly voice said from the other end of the line. "Mark my words. You're going to regret that you ever came to Mystic Falls."

And the phone went dead.

"Entirely helpful," Jayne whispered, sarcastically before throwing the phone across the road and into the river in anger. She kicked at the rocks and stared at the stars until she finally calmed down enough to think straight. With tears in her eyes she crossed the road before wading slowly into the water with tears in her eyes. Diving in, she saw the glint of her stake embedded in the river bed. Quickly she picked it up and returned to the surface.

Now sopping wet, she climbed back into her tree sadly, twisting her stake once again but with less enthusiasm. Because it wasn't over. There would always be someone after her.

But this time she was going to fight.


	4. Chapter 4

Kara's first day passed by fairly quickly. Barely anyone noticed her, but she didn't particularly care. She was good at keeping her head down and doing her work. Or at least…keeping her head down. The work was another thing.

As she walked to her car after school she noted with vague satisfaction that the guy she'd beat up this afternoon walked quite quickly in the opposite direction after catching sight of her. Sliding into the red coloured driver's seat of her car, she found herself sitting next to Kale who almost startled her out of the car.

"Shit! You scared the crap out of me!" Kara attempted to restart her heart as well as her car, to no avail. It seemed multi-tasking was out of the question. "Hang on…how the hell did you get in here? I'm pretty sure I locked the car doors."

"I wanted to surprise you," he said with a wide smile, looking up at me.

"Well you certainly did," Kara replied, breathing heavily. "And you have exquisite timing."

"All in the genes," he replied smugly. "My dad was a drummer, my grandmother was a dancer."

"Yeah, my coordination is pretty much non existent if it doesn't involve me pummelling somebody. Did you see my major stack this morning? My books went flying everywhere. It was like something out of a comic book."

"I can imagine," he replied, making to get out of the car. "It's a shame I missed it."

"Wait, do you need a lift somewhere?" Kara asked.

"I thought you'd never ask," Kale said, sitting back down quickly as Kara finally managed to start up the ignition. "Nice car."

She responded by shooting a death stare at him as she drove out of the parking lot. "It's not like you can talk," she replied stonily. "I don't see you driving."

"Touché," he replied. "Can't say I've ever driven a car, much less owned one."

"Left or right?" Kara asked as she stared at the unfamiliar roads.

"Right," Kale said before continuing. "And it's not like not owning a car is a big deal. I mean, in social status, when you're as low as me it doesn't really matter what you own – people are going to beat the crap out of you anyway."

"Not while I'm around kid."

"And why do you keep calling me kid?" he asked in annoyance. "I mean, how does that work out if I'm a senior and you're a junior."

"How old are you?" Kara inquired as they stopped at the traffic lights. "Which way?"

"Left," Kale responded promptly. "I'm seventeen, I was born on the 16th July."

"And how long have you been sevent – actually, screw that. Bringing Twilight into a conversation is the epitome of all hell on earth."

"I whole heartedly agree," Kale said honestly.

"Finally!" Kara said in joy. "Somebody who is not obsessed with the whole 'I'm-a-sparkly-vampire' thing. Honestly, every time I see Edward Cullen I feel like throwing glitter on his picture and telling him that he is no longer an undercover vampire. Then he'll get so angry that he'll have to drink off a human, proving the whole Stephenie Meyer vampire theory wrong."

"You've really thought that through haven't you," he said incredulously.

"No, I was just ranting."

"Oh," he replied before complimenting me. "Well you're very good at it."

"My roommate tells me that all the time," Kara said. "Left or right?"

"Left, left, then straight for a bit."

"I mean seriously," Kara continued. "It's like the world cannot come up with anything better. First it was vampires and that started off a reboot of the whole supernatural sub-genre which has now branched off into angels, werewolves and immortals."

"I do have to admit," Kale replied looking a bit uncomfortable in his seat. "It is a bit over the top. But I mean, not all of its absolute bullcrap."

Kara found herself scoffing, "What makes you say that?"

"It's the whole Mystic Falls legend I guess. Stories say this place has been haunted for hundreds of years."

She laughed at his comment but when she looked t his serious face she couldn't help but feel a twinge of reasoning inside of her. However she pushed it away as logic recovered its position once again. "Haunted by ghosts? C'mon Kale, I thought you were smarter than that."

"Ghosts or not," he shrugged. "The legends were pretty vague. Basically everything supernatural is attracted to this town. It's like the centre of the supernatural universe."

"Well I guess we'd all better escape the Hellmouth then," Kara said in a pretend-fearful voice. But when she looked at Kale he looked at her with a questioning look. "Buffy reference," she started. "You know the vampire slayer…Hellmouth…"

He still looked confused. "Jeez kid," Kara replied as she looked out the window. "Have you been living in a hole for the past thirteen years?"

"This place IS a hole," he muttered as he pointed out the window. "It's this house here."

Kara turned into the driveway and let him out. "See you tomorrow yeah?"

"Yeah," he replied through the open window. As walked to the front door and I reversed out of the driveway, he called out, "You never told me how old you were!"

She smiled before yelling back, "I'm one day older than you!"


	5. Chapter 5

Jayne felt the cold air hit her hot skin making her shiver. She saw the leaves fly past her in slow-motion as she swung around at a superhuman speed before her leg made contact with a head. She heard a resounding crack and found herself with a stake in hand, poised for the kill.

"They're coming," the guy said to her, his voice distorted through the blood that was flowing from his mouth. "You'd better run slayer."

Jane plunged the silver into his heart before pulling her lighter out of her right boot and lighting the corpse on fire.

Her emotionless eyes gave away no fear as she stood in the light of the flickering flames. As she slid her stake back into her left boot, the flames began to diminish and no evidence was left of the vampire's existence.

"That's some pretty good fire."

Jayne's stake was back in her hand in a nanosecond. "Who's there?" she asked to the dark, not being able to see anybody around her.

"Well, if I tell you, you're going to kill me aren't you?"

"Maybe not," she replied. But both her and the unknown attacker knew that at any opportune moment, if this guy was a vampire – which judging by his attitude, he most likely was – she would drive the stake through his heart without a second thought.

"Considering the circumstances," the male voice said, "I'd say that you're a slayer. But you look a bit young to be out killing vampires."

"Do you want to put that to the test Damon Salvatore?" she replied finally recognising the voice.

"You know me then?"

"I always do my research when I come to a new town. It's unusual to find such a concentration of vampires in such a small town – and you and your brother seem to be the centre of much controversy concerning the supernatural world. And given your track record…I'm sure I don't need an excuse to kill you."

"Go for it," the still invisible Damon Salvatore replied. "You'd have to find me first."

"It shouldn't be too hard," Jayne said with a smile as she made to walk down the road. "After all, this town isn't that big. Once I'm done with the guys trying to kill me, you're next on my list. Unless you're trying to kill me too?"

She didn't receive an answer.


	6. Chapter 6

As Kara woke up in the morning, she found herself wishing that she hadn't. A splitting headache met her with an astonishing tiredness that even a cold shower didn't shake.

"Ally," she said to her friend that she lived with. "Have you got any ibuprofen?"

"Top cupboard on the left," Ally replied, not looking up from the newspaper at the kitchen table. "I told you that you shouldn't have been up watching TV that late."

"You can't tell me that you didn't when you were in high school," Kara replied as she got a biscuit from the cupboard along with her water and drugs. "You and your partying lifestyle-"

"-did not begin until after high school," Ally finished. "Study now, party later. That's my motto. By the way, your sleep in means you're most probably going to be late for school."

Kara looked up at the clock and almost choked on the tablets. Swallowing her food quickly, she ran out the door stuffing books into her back as she went.

"Kill, high school," she muttered incoherently as she went. "Die, now."

"Again with the angst."

Once again, she almost jumped out of her skin as the same guy who had picked up her books yesterday leaned against the driver's door of her car.

"Stop doing that!" Kara said, embellishing it with a hard knock to the man's arm with her hard cover copy of the Lord of the Rings. Except it didn't even reach his arm. He caught it before it did.

"Lord of the Rings?" he said. "Maybe you should be hanging out with Kale after all."

"Who the hell are you?" she asked in frustration, attempting to move him off her door. "And why are you talking to me when I am quite obviously trying to get to school in," she looked at her watch, "the next thirty seconds."

He shrugged, slipping the book back into her satchel bag. "You're not going to make it, so what's the point in going."

Kara opened her mouth to respond before realising that his response was actually quite reasonable. Of course, she wasn't letting him see that she thought so. Considering the fact that she still had no idea who he was.

"Damon Salvatore," he replied. "I believe you've met my brother?"

"That guy I sat next to in history?" Kara asked, attempting to remember. "Yeah, I guess I know his face. But that still doesn't explain why you're talking to me."

She gave one last ditch attempt to get him off her door before giving up and leaning her back against the car as he spoke again.

"You seem fascinating," Damon replied. "British, no family –"

"Thanks," she answered drily.

"Didn't mean it in a bad way," he responded. "It just adds to your mystery."

"I suppose I should be thankful that you don't know my name. You seem on the verge of becoming a stalker."

Of course, his smug look told Kara that he did indeed know her name; he just hadn't said it aloud.

"Well," she said suddenly. "You have most probably made me miss homeroom, so I now have to come up with a believable excuse or face my teacher's wrath. So please get off my car door."

He moved.

"You know," Kara said in obvious annoyance. "If you'd done that in the first place, I might have been in a lot less trouble."

"If you'd asked in the first place, I wouldn't still be standing here."

She gave him a death stare as she began to drive out onto the road. He waved with a mocking smile on his face as she drove off. But Kara couldn't help but feel slightly glad that they'd had that conversation. At least she had a name now.

Damon Salvatore.


	7. Chapter 7

Jayne stood in the shade of a birch tree as she waited patiently for someone to meet her. She flicked a ring between her fingers carelessly before throwing at high in the air and catching it.

"Slayer," a voice came from near her. She spun around to see a high school girl walking up to her. Of course, Jayne knew immediately who she was and also why she had come.

"Well," Jayne asked. "Have you got it?"

Immediately the girl procured a book from her bag. "Don't lose it," she said. "Kale will kill me."

"Don't worry," Jayne replied calmly. "I'm not infamous for losing library books. I might've been if I ever went to high school, but – "

"You never went to high school?" the girl asked in astonishment.

"Indeed I did not Hailey," Jayne replied. "But thank you for bringing me the book. Tell Kale I'll be in touch."

"Will do," Hailey replied, beginning to walk away.

"Wait," Jayne said, catching a glimpse of light coming from her finger. "Who's the witch in the town?"

"What do you mean?"

"You have the rings," she said. "You don't burn in sunlight. Who's the witch?"

"Long gone nowadays," she replied, examining her ring. "They say that she couldn't stand always being in debt to our kind."

"Figures," Jayne breathed. "That's how they all end up. See you around Hailey."

"Yeah," Hailey replied. "Bye."

Jayne walked back to the shade of her tree carrying her book before sitting down and opening it to a page. Immersing herself in further history of this mystic town, she didn't even realise when somebody walked past her.

"Out and about slayer?"

She didn't even need to look up to know who it was. "You got one of those rings too then? Honestly, if every vampire in this town is walking in daylight I'm never going to get any sleep."

"The slayer sleeps?"

"Indeed she does," Jayne said, closing the book and standing up. "By the way, you never answered my question about whether you were trying to kill me."

"I don't make a habit of conversing with the enemy."

"So you are out to kill me?"

"I never said that," he replied as he walked away.


	8. Chapter 8

"So," Kara started as she walked into her break alongside Kale. "You're actually really good at maths right?"

"Yes," Kale replied. "Why, you need tutoring or something?"

"Not so much tutoring as about four extra hours in a day. Honestly. Twenty-four hours is not enough time for us to go to school, work, to homework, relax and sleep."

"Relax?" he scoffed. "You relax? I'm lucky if I even get any sleep."

"I couldn't live if I didn't get sleep," Kara groaned. "The-"

"Kara James!"

"Yes," she replied, turning around to face the unknown voice, soon revealed to be the vice principal.

"Sir?" she choked, realising the tone in which she had said her previous word. "What's the problem?"

"Not really a problem," the principal said as people walked past us on either side. "But your class tests have all been marked and the teachers agree that you are well advanced for your age. As of tomorrow, the Senior Class awaits you."

He walked away leaving me standing there open mouthed. Senior…what…impossible…

"Well this is just," I said turning back to Kale. "Neurgh!" I walked past him in a huff. He hurried to catch up to me. We both flinched as the sunlight met us but I still continued walking until I could sit down in the shade.

"What was that all about?" Kale asked.

"Don't pretend you didn't hear," Kara said to Kale in disappointment. Sitting on the table and pulling her feet up on the seat. "And don't pretend that there's no bubble of elation in your stomach because I can feel it emanating over here."

"Well I'm excited," he said happily. "You can't blame me. Now the nerds can hang together."

"Whoa," Kara said, turning and facing him. "I may be moving into the year I'm supposed to be in, but that does not mean I am a nerd. Trust me, you'll see how far behind I am tomorrow."

"Well, tutoring might come in handy anyway," Kale replied.

Kara sat down and rummaged in her bag for some cookies. "All right then. I'm moving into your year, so who's who?"

"Matt Donovan," Kale said, pointing to a boy across the courtyard. "Caroline Forbes," he continued, motioning towards the girl next to him. "Alicia Harrison, Tyler Lockwood."

He moved his gaze across. "Bonnie Bennett," he said before skipping Jeremy Gilbert whom she already knew because he was a Junior like Kara, well, had been. "Stefan Salvatore and Elena Gilbert. George Fal – oh, hi Hailey!"

A slender blonde girl slipped into place beside Kale staring at Kara strangely with her vivid green eyes. "Hey," Hailey said vaguely before whispering something unintelligible to Kale. He nodded and her posture visibly relaxed. Of course, all Kara was thinking was 'what the hell' but she didn't say it. Just sat there eating her cookies as if she was completely out of it.

"So," Hailey said, now with a warm smile on her face. Kara was extremely surprised by the sudden mood swing, but she listened anyway. "Kale's informed me that you're moving up to our year."

"You're a senior too?" Now that was a fact that astounded Kara. Hailey didn't look old enough to even be in year ten. The height factor, maybe, but that was about it. Her eyes looked too wide and innocent. But then again, maybe she just wanted them to look like that.

"As far as I know," Hailey replied with laughter in her voice.

"I cannot wait to get out of this place," Kara said, as she looked around.

"But you just got here!" Kale said in astonishment.

"I didn't mean this school specifically. I meant high school. I just don't like school."

"I think it's fairly justified," Hailey responded amid cries of protest from Kale. "It's not like any of us would be here by choice if we had something better to do. Except perhaps the nerd here."

Kara smiled at her. At least somebody agreed with her. However, Hailey's expression that faltered momentarily made Kara doubt her thought. And Hailey's sudden standing position a second later came as a shock to Kara.

"I have to go," she said, walking away quickly.

"She does that," Kale said as we watched her retreating back.

"Did I do something?" Kara asked curiously. What was up with her?

"No," he replied. "She's a strange child."

"I guess all of us are at heart."

"Hear hear," Kale replied as the bell rang. "Back to school."

"Damn," she sighed as she picked up her bag and dropped her empty cookie packet in the bin.

"Enjoy your last day of eleventh grade!" Kale said.

She scoffed as she walked off to history.


	9. Chapter 9

Jayne pulled a stake from a vampire she'd been fighting before disposing of his body in the river. She cleaned her stake of blood before using it to climb her way up a tree. From her position she could see the town for miles. Any movement…but more specifically, any supernatural movement. After thirty minutes, she grew bored and climbed down. She went for a run through the woods until she came to a residential area. Still keeping out of sight, Jayne climbed another tree, and settled down to waiting.

But she didn't have to go far until a vampire came walking down the street. And Jayne felt no surprise when she noticed it was Damon Salvatore. He walked non-chalantly down the middle of the street and posed no threat to Jayne, so she kept her stake in her boot. But her hand still hesitated over the dagger hidden in her belt.

"I know you're here," he called out to the supposed emptiness.

"How?" Jayne called in a strong voice. He looked up but by the time he had, she was already crouched on the ground. While he looked at her curiously she asked, "How did you know I was here?"

"Why are you even here?"

"My question first," I replied coldly.

"The trail of dead bodies guided the way."

At that comment Jayne was confused. "I've learnt the art of disposing of bodies."

"And I've learnt the art of finding disposed bodies. I see you've been busy."

"I do not appreciate the slaughter on humankind as a sport. Our species is equal to yours in more than one way." Honestly. She was a slayer, what else was she supposed to think.

"Really?" he asked with a challenge which Jayne took gladly. In one swift movement she had a stake in her hand pointed directly over his heart.

He blinked in astonishment and Jayne could almost see the cogs working in his brain as he tried to figure out how she'd moved so fast.

"Challenge me again," Jayne warned as she pulled her arm away, "and I will not hesitate to kill you. I don't think it's a secret that I strongly dislike your kind."

"And yet you spoke quite friendly with one this morning."

Did this guy seriously have no fear? Jayne thought as she walked away from him.

"If a creature of the night has never stolen the life of a human being," Jayne recited, "a slayer can have no intervention in the life of the undead." She felt herself thinking over those lines. They were what she had been told right since the beginning, but she found herself wondering. What if the humans had been murderers themselves? Was a vampire right in killing them?

"So," Damon said a smile on his face. "You can't kill us if you don't have proof that we've killed a human."

"There's plenty of proof concerning you in the history books, if you know where to look."

"Not by name," he said with a knowing smile. "Therefore, it is not conclusive evidence. Would your superiors still want you to kill me?"

"Most probably," Jayne shrugged. "But they're dead so there's no point in asking them."

"So you don't even work for anyone?" Damon asked in astonishment.

"I work for me. I do my duty to humanity as is required of me."

"Most people do their service to the human race by becoming doctors or do-gooders," he replied doubtfully. "But vampire slayers."

"Are the secret do-gooders," Jayne said stonily. "You. Are. Evil. It's my duty to destroy you and all that you stand for."

She started to walk away, but his footsteps followed her. "Who are you?" he said as he came up next to me.

"I'm the slayer."

"What?" he asked. "So that what everyone calls you? 'Slayer'?"

"It's what most people have called me." There were perhaps one or two who knew Jayne's name AND identity.

"If you're going for the whole superhero act, something with a bit more bravado might be in order."

"I don't want to be a superhero," Jayne replied. "I want to do what is right. And if you stand in my way Damon Salvatore, I will kill you."

"But what if I want to stand with you?"

"You want to help me kill your own kind?" Jayne asked doubtfully. "Add in the fact that it's you…no."

"I have my own reasons for wanting these people dead."

"And that's what worries me Salvatore," Jayne replied. "You and ulterior motives."

"So…we COULD work together…"

"When hell freezes over Salvatore," Jayne replied. "Vampire allies are not on my trust list. And just because we share a common enemy, does not mean we're fighting for the same thing. The enemy of my enemy is not my friend."

"Just don't rule me off the list. Someday soon we will have to fight together."

"Keep on dreaming Salvatore," Jayne replied as she started to walk away again. "It's never going to happen."


	10. Chapter 10

Kara sat in bed that night, glancing through some of the textbooks that Kale had lent her. Some of the stuff looked easy, and other parts looked hard. All of it looked boring.

Kara rolled off her bed onto the ground in one swift fluid movement. She found herself looking underneath her bed searching for a dusty guitar. Music was on her timetable for tomorrow and she hadn't played in ages.

She pulled a hard case out and opened it. Coughing out dust, she pulled the guitar out before strumming it once and flinching when she heard the sound of severely out of tune strings.

Kara attempted to tune them, giving up when two of the strings broke. "Ally," she called, walking through the house. "Where's the nearest music shop?"

"Um…" Ally didn't look up from the magazine she was reading but she said, "There's a booklet underneath the fruit bowl. I think it's in town."

"Do you play?" Kara asked as she glanced through the booklet, looking for guitar strings.

"A bit of piano, flute's more my forte though."

"You have a piano?" she asked, looking up at her in astonishment.

"Yeah," Ally replied, putting her magazine aside and standing up before turning back to Kara. "It's over here."

Living here for only five days, Kara hadn't really explored the house. But when Ally led her into a beautifully ornate room with books and a piano in the corner, Kara was astonished. It was a huge room which made the wooden grand piano seem insignificant – but still beautiful.

"You know any tunes?" Ally asked Kara.

"Never learnt," she replied running her fingers over the wood. "You?"

"Stopped playing when my parents died," Ally said plainly. "It didn't seem necessary."

"Sorry," Kara responded immediately feeling guilty. "I didn't know."

"It's all right," she replied. "My brother left as soon as he could. He said this place had too many memories. But I think I need to hold onto my parents."

"It's good to," Kara agreed, remembering her own parents. Strangely, no feelings of loss came with them but she pushed the thought from her mind. As they walked from the room, Ally said to Kara on a completely different note, "Of all the places you could have gone, why come to Mystic Falls?"

"I don't know," Kara replied starting to walk out of the room. "I guess there's just something about this place. My guardian lives a couple of towns away. But I suppose, the small town life attracted me. I'm sick of city life. I guess I wanted the quiet life for once."

Ally nodded. "Reasonable," she said. "But why do you live with me, rather than your guardian."

"We don't get along too well," Kara said as she picked up her car keys off the bench. "I'm going to go into town – see if I can pick up some guitar strings."

"All right," Ally said, sinking back into the lounge and flicking the television on. "Later."

Kara walked out of the door after picking up her wallet. As she fiddled with her keys to find the one that would open the door, she thought she saw something out of the corner of her eye. However, upon looking up, she saw the desolate front garden.

She shook the thought from her mind as slid the key into the car door. Haunted Mystic Falls, Kara thought to herself, as if. She pulled the keys out of the car door and a supernatural wind came from nowhere, knocking her keys to the ground. As Kara leant to pick them up, she thought she saw the shadow again. But this time, she knew it wasn't just a strange reflection of light.

As she stood up, she was pushed against the car door by a mysterious figure looking at her through. With skin as dark as night yet eyes that shone in the reflected moonlight, she couldn't help but feel afraid. The man smiled a creepy smile before saying, "Hello Kanuea."

Kara found herself being both confused and scared and a whole lot of other emotions she had never felt before.

"Rodney!" a voice that sounded vaguely familiar called out. "She's not the one. Leave her!"

He gave her one scrutinizing glare before stepping off her and disappearing. Kara surveyed her surrounding carefully, searching for the voice that had saved her. However, no person stood anywhere near her.

She got into her car, still shaken up, but alive. For some reason, she had the feeling that the situation should have scared her more. That she should be crying hysterically on her bed. Yet she didn't.

Exiting the driveway, Kara thought she saw someone standing on her roof, but when she blinked, they were gone.


	11. Chapter 11

Jayne sat in the corner of the public library reading the opposite of what she normally would. A romance novel lay open in her hands and for the first time in this town, her face wasn't covered.

She'd been covered by a black mask for longer than she could remember. Being free of it was a strange feeling. People could see her and they walked straight past. Well…all except one.

"Kara?" the voice asked. Jayne immediately pushed the book in front of her face, but as they walked towards her, she pulled it down slightly, allowing her to see who they were.

"Oh…sorry," the person said. "I thought you were somebody else…wait."

It was Hailey, Jayne realised. And hell…she recognised her.

"Walking around without a mask Jayne?" she asked. Hailey was one of the few people who DID know who Jayne was but Jayne didn't deny the fact that it made her feel queasy.

"I wasn't expecting anyone to recognise me," Jayne said, shifting uneasily in her seat.

"Dude," Hailey replied, sitting next to her. "I've known you what…200 years? Your face is burned into my memory considering the fact that you were hunting me for twenty years."

"True true," Jayne said, putting her book to the side.

"What are you doing here?" Hailey asked, as she picked up the book. "You're definitely not reading this book.

"Scanning," she replied. "I'm looking for this guy…Damon Salvatore."

Hailey's gaze momentarily faltered, but she regained her composure quickly. If Jayne didn't have such attentive eyes, she probably would have missed it. But at that moment she knew something was up.

"Please do not tell me you guys have an alliance," she groaned. It would ruin her day – and night – if she couldn't kill Damon Salvatore. Honestly, he was almost as annoying as a mosquito and was already similar to one in many respects. "I very well may shoot myself if I have to put up with him for much longer."

"He's not that bad," Hailey replied. "I mean, he's completely up himself and an arrogant jerk, but he'll do the right thing."

"The right thing by whose definition Hailey?" Jayne asked, looking away from her.

"We're on the same side Jayne," Hailey said, her face confused. "I know what you expect."

"He's killed, Hailey," Jayne stated.

"And so have you," she responded evenly.

"It's not the same thing," Jayne said, picking her book up and standing.

"Isn't it?" she called back. "If somebody killed me, you wouldn't consider it to be murder?"

"Of course I would," Jayne replied, slipping the book back on the shelf. "You're my friend." Even though she didn't like to admit it.

"And you know what I am. We all make mistakes," Hailey said. "You have, but you seem to think that killing vampires is going to bring back that human you killed 300 years ago. It's done…move on."

Jayne had been trying to push that guilt away for so long but Hailey's comment made it all come flooding back.

"You said you weren't going to bring that up ever again…"

"…unless it was necessary," Hailey finished. "You need to stop this prejudice against us after all, you are-"

"Leaving," Jayne said quickly.

"If you promise not to kill Damon," Hailey said, holding her by her arm. "And by the way, we're doing all we can to find the people who are trying to kill you."

Jayne frowned, "I didn't tell you about that."

"Damon did."

She gave Hailey an annoyed glare before walking downstairs and out of the library.

"Don't go looking for him," Hailey called from behind her. "Promise?"

"Fine," Jayne said exasperatedly. "I promise not to kill Damon Salvatore. Anyone else you want to save?"

"Not really anyone that you don't already know about."

Jayne shook her head before walking out of the library and keeping to the shadows and beginning to walk away. However something she'd said bugged her.

"Hailey?" she asked as she spun around quickly. Fortunately she was still standing outside the library. "Hailey, you called me Kara…"

"Umm…yeah, sorry."

"Why'd you call me Kara?"

"No reason."

Jayne wasn't believing it, "She's here isn't she. She's in Mystic Falls?"

"Well…yeah…"

"Great," Jayne replied as she walked away again. "Just add another problem into this mess."


	12. Chapter 12

"So Kara," Kara heard a voice say from behind her. "What's the story with you changing grades and all?"

Caroline Forbes waited expectantly for an answer, and after finishing her sentence, Kara turned around and spoke to her. "I was held back at my old school because I wanted to coast. Now it seems coasting isn't going to keep me held back and so I am now at the correct grade for my age."

"Right," Caroline said. "So where'd you come from?"

"I was in LA for a while," Kara said, turning back to her book and glancing up at the board. "But I was born in Croydon."

"That's in England right?"

"Yeah," Kara said with an inner smile. "It is."

"You're from Croydon?" a voice she'd never heard came from behind Caroline.

"Yes," Kara replied, trying to look around Caroline to see who it was. Slowly, she recognised Stefan Salvatore, the annoying Damon Salvatore's brother. "Why?"

"I used to know a guy, he lived on Scarbrook Road."

"So did I," Kara replied with a smile. "What was his name?"

"Nathaniel," he replied. "He'd be long gone now though."

"Nathaniel Henning?" Kara said. "He used to tutor me."

Stefan's expression grew confused and even Kara found that memory confusing. She could remember Nathaniel Henning's face...she remembered them sitting and reading books, doing arithmetic in the afternoon sun...but instead of the emotionless memories Kara seemed to be having of late, she found herself with a sea of emotions welling up inside her at seeing Nathaniel's face in her mind. And yet...memories of him were hesitant, blurry even. As if maybe they were just her imagination.

"Or at least," she rectified quickly. "From what my mother told me, I used to imagine he did."  
>And although Kara had no idea who Nathaniel Henning was ten minutes ago, she now found herself seeing his face in her mind and trying to figure out who he was...and what he was to her.<p>

Stefan nodded although his expression still seemed miles away. Kara turned back to her work, Caroline Forbes forgotten, and finished copying the notes from the board. When the bell rang, she found herself walking out of the class second last, Stefan followed behind her.  
>"Kara," he said. "You've been hanging around with Damon right?"<p>

Kara scoffed, "If you can call his uncanny ability to turn up wherever I am hanging out, then yes."

"It might be better if you don't go near him."

"Why?" she asked curiously. I mean, Damon was weird, but he didn't seem dangerous. Unstable maybe, but not dangerous.

"You seem like a nice girl...and I'd hate to see Damon mess you up. It's what he tends to do."

"Well, he hasn't tried to make a move. And I'm pretty sure that when he does, I'll shoot him down pretty hard."

"Er...just don't make him angry."

"I won't. Funnily enough I figured that out already."

"Right," Stefan said as they walked into the corridor. "Well, I'd better go," I saw him incline his head towards Elena who stood a couple of metres away talking to Bonnie. "See you later."

"Okay," Kara replied as he went over to them. "Wait," she called. "How did you know Nathaniel Henning?"

"His family did my family a favour a while back."

"Oh," Kara said. "Right."

He walked off and she did too. Seeing Kale in the distance, she made her way towards him, all the while remembering the look in Stefan's eyes.

The look that said he wasn't delivering the whole truth.


	13. Chapter 13

"Jayne Perrin."

Jayne turned around holding a stake in her hand and coming face to face, once again, with Damon Salvatore.

"Don't you ever leave?"

"As a matter of fact, I'm always on the move; it just happens that you're near me."

She breathed, biting back her retort and calmed herself. Then the shock set in. Her name. He'd known her name.

"How-" she spluttered.

He threw a book towards her and it fell open at pages concerning the slayer. A hand drawn picture of a masked warrior was imprinted on the first page and the other gave detailed descriptions of who the slayer was. The girl pictured on the opposing page…her. Jayne Perrin.

"You've been around for a while then," Damon started. "Four hundred years if I remember correctly."

"Yeah," Jayne said. "Jayne Perrin has been around for exactly four hundred and twenty seven years."

"But details of a slayer that is described exactly like you go back further than that. Seven hundred…eight hundred years."

"Just ask your stupid question Salvatore," Jayne said wanting to get out of there before he found out too much about her. Which, really, he already had.

"What are you?"

She turned her back to him and started to walk away slowly. "Unfortunately you aren't getting an answer to that."

Next moment he was standing in front of her, blocking her way forward. "There aren't any laws against me killing you," he murmured. "As a matter of fact, vampires around the world would sing my name in praise."

"But killing me," Jayne said as she weaved her way around him, "isn't going to get you anything that you want. It won't get you information; it won't get you those vampires that you want dead. So really, I'm the one with the leverage. And by the way, I didn't last eight hundred years as a slayer because I'm terrible at my job. The moment you try to kill me, you'll end up a pile of ashes before you can even say 'Hell'."

"You've thought that out pretty well," Damon said.

"I have about ten scenarios running through my head every second. So trust me, anything you've thought of, I thought of ten years ago."

He turned around and pulled the stake from Jayne's hand. Holding it to her arm he sliced in one swift movement.

"Anticipate that?" he said.

"Yeah," Jayne replied, looking at the blood welling in the wound. "But I don't particularly care. And just out of curiosity, do you have a death wish?"

She flung her leg around, kicking him in the face and pulling the stake from his grasp. He made to get up, but she punched him in the stomach, winding him. He stared at her with a look of pure loathing.

"I've warned you that I could kill you in a second. And really, pissing me off isn't a great way to prevent that. Just because you are in an alliance with someone I know, doesn't mean that I won't let an uh, 'accident' happen."

"You know Kale?" Damon asked, beginning to recover from his injury.

"I know Hailey," Jayne replied.

"So…we really are on the same side."

"They may say that you are, but unfortunately you need to prove that to me," Jayne replied.

"I will," Damon replied arrogantly.

"I look forward to that day," Jayne said with a smile, the promise she'd made to Hailey the only thing that was stopping her from squashing Damon Salvatore like a bug.

"It'll be coming soon," he said. "Just you watch Jayne Perrin."

She threw the stake at him in annoyance, purposefully slow so that he'd have time to dodge it. "Never call me Jayne," she said dangerously. "Ever again."

Damon looked up at the stake that he'd avoided and back to her quickly. "Fine then Slayer," he replied, whipping the stake from the tree in which it was embedded. Jayne reached for it, but he held it too high for her to reach. She eyes him carefully before jumping over his head and landing in the lowest branch of the tree.

He looked around, shocked. "You did that…how?"

"Something you're never going to find out Salvatore," she replied, staring down at him. "Because I'll kill you before you do."


	14. Chapter 14

Kara sat on the stairs outside as she waited not so patiently for Kale to come out of chemistry.

"Nerds," she muttered to herself. "I can dearly say that I do not miss being one."

That phase of her life had ended along with her sophomore year and personally, she was glad. She'd finally come to the realisation that school was stupid, and she didn't want to be there. However, she was stuck here for-

"One more year," she whispered to herself. "Only one more year."

"You still have to get through the year," an unfortunately recognisable voice said. Looking up and letting her eyes adjust to the light, she saw Damon Salvatore looking down at her.

"Don't keep reminding me," Kara replied. "You're out of school so you can't talk."

"Who says I'm out of school."

"Being in the school grounds and not attending classes only comes in the category of trespassing, not being IN school."

"Maybe I just attend a different school," he said.

"The school of the non-existent?" Kara said. "I'll agree with that. By the way, I thought you were too old to be in school."

"How can you say that when you know nothing about me?"

"I don't need to know anything about you," Kara replied as she heard people beginning to come through the doors behind her. She stood up and moved, Damon trailing next to her.

"But that doesn't mean you don't want to," he said in a low voice with a smirk. Kara felt her insides shiver, but her exterior was cool as she slunk off the pathway underneath a tree.

"I'll bet you a hundred dollars that I can stay away from you until next week," Kara said in inspiration, "But you can't come to me either, otherwise that's unfair."

"Deal," he said holding out his hand, Kara hesitated before shaking his hand. It was surprisingly cool considering the warm day, however she shrugged it off. But looking up she found herself looking into his endless eyes enraptured by the depths.

"Damon," a strong voice said from behind Kara. The moment was broken and she dazedly turned around as Stefan Salvatore continued, "What are you doing here?"

"I was just having a most profitable conversation with young Kara here."

"Not yet," she warned. "You still have to win. But happily for me, if you do lose, maybe your ego will get lost with you. Double win for me." She flashed him a wide smile before Stefan said, "Whatever this bet is, I'm hoping you win."

"Thank you," Kara said as Damon exclaimed, "What! This whole teamwork thing doesn't extend this far then?"

"Well, considering I've learned never to bet WITH you, brother, I'm siding with the opposition on this one. I think she can actually win."

"Game on," Damon replied with a look from Stefan to Kara before walking down the path.

"So," Stefan started. "What's this bet about?"

"Me staying away from him," she responded as they started to walk.

"You think you can do it?" Stefan asked.

"I know I can do it," Kara responded quickly. "It's just a matter of keeping myself preoccupied."

"And how are you going to manage that?" Stefan asked.

"Well considering the fact that I couldn't answer any questions on the history test today, I'm thinking that a few library books might be taking up my time."

Stefan's look was momentarily awkward before he said, "Well, good luck with that."

"Aren't there any books on town history?" Kara asked confusedly.

"As I said," he replied. "Good luck."

Damn, Kara thought, this bet was going to be harder than she expected.

...

Kara sat on her bed that night with her laptop open on her knees. She found herself accepting Kale as a friend on Facebook and then browsing profiles aimlessly. Eventually she was typing Nathaniel Henning's name into search. Kara had it in her mindset that the image in her head was just an interpretation of a story her mother had told her. Yet she felt something was wrong with that reasoning. If it was just her imagining, then what was the emotional connection she'd felt?

No search results appeared, so she typed his name into Google. And this time, something REALLY interesting turned up.

"Nathaniel Henning," Kara read aloud, "Died age 24 from an animal attack in his home on Scarbrook Road on the 21st March 1908." Okay, so it was definitely just a story then. "His sister and their boarder disappeared that same night having been seen leaving the town by a neighbour. Later that night, Nathaniel was found in his home by the same neighbour, his student and family friend Kara James."

Kara's eyes widened in shock and she felt thoughts flying through her head in a blur.

No...this was impossible. She checked the date again. 1908. That was 84 years before she'd even been born. It was just coincidence, was what she told herself, that was all.

So she continued reading. But all she really wanted was the name of the author. And finally she found it, along with a very helpful email address. Notating it quickly, she turned off the computer and closed her eyes. Leaving her mind to dwell on very confusing thoughts.

That night Kara dreamed of animals, runaways, bets and mystery. And the author's name burned across all of them. Hailey Stanton.


	15. Chapter 15

Jayne watched Kara through her open window as she sat on her laptop. Thoughts ran through her head ceaselessly as Jayne tried to determine how on earth Kara was here. She was so off her guard that at one stage she almost fell out of the tree because of a bat. Regaining her balance, she found Kara writing down something on a piece of paper and turning the computer off. The room was plunged into darkness as Kara drifted into unconsciousness.

Jayne listened carefully until she was sure that there was no movement and Kara's breathing deepened. She jumped from her tree through the open window and landed lightly on the carpeted floor of Kara's room.

Quietly, Jayne crept over to where Kara's laptop sat on her bedside table. She opened it, flinching when she heard the windows start up tune. Her eyes darted to where Kara lay practically dead on her bed.

"Sleeping through a storm," Jayne murmured to herself. "It never changes."

Jayne opened up the internet and viewed what Kara's internet history.

"Friends with Kale?" Jayne muttered. "That guy seriously went back to school?"

She went back to the history and looked at what was next on the list. Doing a double take when she saw the name.

"Damn it," she swore, glancing at Kara's sleeping face and back to the internet page. "I swear I made her forget this."

Closing the laptop, she turned Kara's bedside lamp back on. Sitting on the edge of her bed, she said, "Kara. Wake up."

Of course, out to the world she didn't respond. Jayne shook her by the shoulders until she mumbled and opened her eyes. Kara jumped back as soon as she saw Jayne's figure, plainly freaked out.

"Alright then," Jayne said looking her dead in the eye. "Nathaniel Henning is just someone you read about on the internet. A historical figure. Your name is just a coincidence. Knowing Kale, he's probably given you the supernatural myths talk already but NONE of it is true. You are Kara James," Jayne continued repeating exactly what she'd said a year ago. "You were born in Croydon, before moving to LA. Your birthday is the 15th July and you are seventeen years old. Your parents died when you were twelve. Your guardian always lives somewhere near you, but you never talk. You fill in the gaps. Capiche?"

Kara nodded vaguely, her eyes glazed over. "And I was never here," Jayne added before turning off the light. Letting her eyes adjust to the sudden darkness, she saw Kara slumping back into her bed and Jayne made her way back out the way she had come. Honestly, she thought to herself, making Kara forget had worked for hundreds of years, but now it seemed she might be growing immune to it. A severely annoying fact.


	16. Chapter 16

"Kara!" Ally's voice cut through her haze. "Dude, school starts in like ten minutes!"

Kara started to mumble something but she never managed to get it out, throwing up all over her floor instead.

"Okay," Ally said, stepping back in the doorway, "I guess I know why you're not there."

Kara lay in that awkward position breathing heavily. Her head was still pounding with images, like it had been for the past few nights. Only last night, something had tried to fight them.

She remembered it. A darkness attempting to cover her thoughts. Only she couldn't remember who - or what - had put them there. It confused her further, making the jumbled pictures seem more threatening than they should.

"Do you need me to take you to the doctor?"

"No," she croaked before coughing her throat clear. "No, I'll be fine." Kara didn't know why, but the idea of a doctor scared her. Strange, she thought to herself, I can't remember being scared of them before.

She turned back over, away from the vomit, her headache already ebbing away. Yet the images still remained. Especially one that her mind didn't seem to want to let go of.

Her and a boy. Nathaniel Henning, Kara realised, standing by a pond. A ring...

Kara opened her eyes in wonder as more images continued flooding into her mind. But these ones were real. Memories of the past few days that she KNEW without a doubt were real. And they were trying to push away Nathaniel's face as if it was something secret. Something Kara shouldn't know.

But the thinking was hurting Kara's head worse and tears began to spill from her eyes as the pain tore at her head.

"Enough," she whispered, "I've had enough. Let me go."

Kara didn't even know what she wanted to let her go, but she knew something was causing this and she wanted it to end.

Do you want to be free? A voice that sounding familiar to Kara asked in her mind. Not even knowing if it was a real person, she muttered, "Yes."

"You don't know what you're asking."

Kara opened her eyes to look directly into a masked face.

"Knowing has to be better than forgetting," Kara responded, still not knowing what she was saying. What was she forgetting? What on earth did she need to know?

"Knowing might kill you," the masked figure said.

"Dealing with this pain will do it faster!" Kara groaned, clutching her head.

The masked figure stood up, bathed in sunshine from the open window. She touched her hand to Kara's forehead and immediately, the darkness retreated from Kara's mind. But the ceaseless images remained.

"Are you certain you want this?" the masked figure whispered.

"Yes," Kara breathed, about to cry out from the pressure building behind her eyes.

The girl whispered a word in a foreign tongue before taking her hand off Kara's head and flashing through the window.

But even her speed wasn't quick enough to escape the shrieking emitted by Kara as her mind burned and her body collapsed.

But when Kara woke up...she remembered...

Everything.


	17. Chapter 17

Jayne sat in her famous spot – the bough of a tree – once again. She sat with her head in her hands and held her stake in her hands. Looking at it with disgust, she threw it away; expecting to hear the thud of it sinking into the grass, but all there was was silence.

"Salvatore," Jayne muttered with distain in her voice.

"Am I really that familiar to you now?" Damon responded, suddenly standing next to her.

"I wish you weren't," Jayne muttered. "Why are you even here?"

"Ouch," he replied. "Looks like somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed."

"Then maybe," she said, snatching the stake back, "You should leave before I do something drastic. Believe me, the mood I'm in right now, it's not incomprehensible by any means."

"Ooo," he said, "So what happened to put the slayer in this much of a bad mood?"

"You don't want to know," she replied, passing the stake between her hands.

"On the contrary," Damon replied. "I find myself fascinated by you. So any little secrets or interesting facts you want to throw my way, I'm all ears."

"By the time I've explained my past, it would take so long that you'd be wishing you were dead. A wish I'd then be happy to grant because I have told you many times that I will kill you if you ever inch close to my past."

"I am already dead," he said pointedly.

"And I can kill you again," Jayne replied, flicking the stake towards him dangerously, "A fact you would be wise to remember."

"Oh but I am wise," he replied with an annoying smirk. "And what you should know is that I have a bit of leverage on my part to make you talk."

"Nothing will make me talk," Jayne said with confidence, "I have nothing to fight for except survival."

"Not even Kara?" he asked.

Jayne's head jolted up to look at him, her momentary falter in stance quickly returning to normal. However, Damon's vampire eyes didn't miss the change. He knew he'd struck gold.

"What do you know about Kara?" Jayne asked in a low voice once she realised Damon wasn't leaving the matter.

"I know that she's annoyingly hot," he replied, "She has a tendency to trip over nothing. She hates school, doesn't mind making bets that she knows she can't keep and hangs out with a bunch of vampires even though she doesn't know what they are. She also plays guitar, doesn't get along with her guardian and has some serious memory problems."

"You've been stalking her haven't you?" Jayne asked.

"Only a bit," he said. "I was just curious considering you two are so alike."

"Oh really?" Jayne said. "In what ways?"

"You both look relatively the same age. You don't have any known family, neither does she. Both of you crop up in history in the most random places and you both know how to throw a punch. However, she doesn't have as much coordination. Hence the tendency to trip over nothing."

"I seriously think you need to get a life," Jayne said, leaning against the tree trunk wearily.

"And I think that you need to get talking," Damon said.

"That's not going to work," she replied. "I'll never talk…"

Jayne trailed off as a sudden thought came into her head. She'd given Kara back memories which she'd regretted since she did it. So, the obvious conclusion would be to cover them all up again. But since Jayne couldn't do it because it seemed her way wasn't working as well as it used to…maybe it was time to enlist the help of somebody who's way would work.

She turned to face Damon, "Can you compel her?"

"Come again?"

"Kara," Jayne said. "Can you compel her to forget?"

"Yes…I could," he responded, "Why?"

"I gave her back memories-"

"Whoa…what?" he looked at her confusedly. "You gave her back…memories?"

"Which I've taken away," she continued. "But her knowing about her past could ruin everything."

"But you said all you cared about was survival," Damon said. "So…her knowing is going to kill you."

"Ultimately…yes," Jayne replied. She could see the cogs working in Damon's head. If he let Kara keep the memories, he'd be rid of Jayne. But then he wouldn't find out Jayne's mystery.

"If it was going to kill you…then why did you give the memories back?"

"Because she was fighting the block," Jayne said, standing up. "All those years that I'd hidden her memories from her started to make her immune. She was remembering and it was killing her."

"So you gave her memories that would kill you," he said and Jayne nodded in reply. "Wait, I'm still stuck on the whole memory wipe thing. You…took her memories…and now you've given them back. And now that she has her memories this is somehow going to kill you." Jayne nodded again. "But you can't take away her memories because she's grown immune to it so you want me to compel her into forgetting…how many years?"

"Um…" Jayne didn't want to say. It wouldn't help her whole 'don't talk' mantra.

"I need to know," Damon said in a sing-song voice. "If you want this done, I have to do it tonight. And you can tell me all about yourself tomorrow night. That's the terms."

"Any fine print that I need to know about?" Jayne asked cautiously.

"Not as far as I know," he replied. "But it'll probably come up within the next week."

Not really having a choice, Jayne sighed and looked at him, "Give her a past. As far as I know she's only told a few people anything and if most of them are vampires, they won't point it out when they notice she's been compelled."

"Jayne," Damon said, "How many years do I have to erase?"

She stared at him, revealing the secret that no person living or dead had ever known.

"1102," she whispered.

If Damon was surprised, he didn't let it show jumping down from the tree nimbly and disappearing into the distance.

But Jayne still ached with worry.


	18. Chapter 18

Kara remembered Damon Salvatore.

It was an unfortunate moment for her when she saw his annoying face in her mind. However, she shrugged it off. The bet was still on. Six more days.

Kara went about a rushed morning routine after seeing the time, but Ally looked at her strangely when she walked into the kitchen.

"Are you all right?" she asked.

"Sure," Kara replied. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"I just thought with the throwing up and seemingly extreme pain you were under school would be out of the question today."

I'd thrown up? she thought, I guess that slipped my mind.

"Well I feel fine now," Kara said happily, grabbing an apple from the fruit bowl. "By the way, when's my board payment due?"

"Whenever," Ally replied. "I'm not fussed. Although, I do hope you cleaned up the mess on the carpet."

"There was no mess," Kara said in confusion. Walking back into her room, Ally followed her, her face growing equally puzzled. "I could swear..." she trailed off, walking back to the kitchen.

As Kara picked up her car keys, Ally came rushing out from her room handing me a wooden charm. "Here," she said pressing it into my hands.

"Uh...thanks?" Kara said glancing at the carved heart.

"It was my mother's, but I want you to have it."

"Ally, I couldn't."

"Yes you can," she said turning Kara around and all but pushing her out the door. "Now get to school. You're already late."

"Thank you!" Kara called from her car as she waved at Ally. She smiled in return before stepping back into the house.

Kara sped to school arriving just in time to see everyone filing in the main doors.

"Yes!" she whispered, stepping out of the car and rushing up the stairs.

...

Music, Biology and Japanese flew past. And what Kara felt worse about was that she had no clue what was going on in any of them. It was like the topics had been wiped from her mind completely and most teachers realised it, pulling her aside to speak to her about it.

Offering no answer because she had none, all she could do was claim temporary mind blanks. History came around and it wasn't much better. However, Kara did know a lot about Mystic Falls. After Mr. Saltzman - she refused to call him by his first name - asked questions about the civil war. Very few people could answer them. And most of them a part of the same groups. The Bonnie, Elena, Stefan kind of group and the Kale, Hailey and Kara group. Elena and Bonnie both seemed surprised when Kara answered a few questions but Stefan, Kale and Hailey all glanced at her curiously. Glances which she blatantly ignored.

"How'd you know that stuff?" Kale asked as they walked out of the school.

"Reading, I guess," Kara responded with a shrug.

"In one night?" Hailey asked incredulously.

Kara smiled in confirmation even though she couldn't actually remember what she did last night.

"Salvatore," Hailey whispered to Kale, shifting her head to the left.

"Which one?" Kale replied, his eyes scanning the grounds. "Oh. That one. I'll go say hi-Where are you going Kara?"

But she'd already left her bag and was walking over to him with a smug smile plastered on her face.

"Well Damon Salvatore, it appears you've lost."

"I've lost nothing young one. Except perhaps a little dignity by hanging around a school yard," he said, leaning against a tree.

"So the hundred dollars that's about to go missing from your wallet doesn't ring a bell?"

"Oh, you still remember that?" he asked with raised eyebrows.

"Of course I do," Kara scoffed. "It was only yesterday."

"Aha," Damon muttered. "Well, you shouldn't be remembering that so..."

Looking directly into Kara's eyes he continued, "There was no bet ever made. You have no reason to stay away from me."

"What's wrong with your eyes?" Kara asked before what he'd said actually hit her. "And really, trying to convince me the bet never took place, isn't going to work."

"Your right, it obviously isn't. In which case I shall see you tonight at Kale's party, with your money. Isn't that right Kale?"

In her peripheral vision, Kara could see Kale waving his hands frantically, suddenly just behind her.

"A party Kale?" she asked doubtfully, turning to face him. Stopping his hand motions immediately, he replied sheepishly, "I was going to invite you."

"As I can so obviously tell."

"Oops," Damon's voice cut through once again. "I appear once again to have said something unwanted, so I'll leave you two to chat. Pick you up at seven?"

"Whoa!" Kara said in momentary shock. "A second ago it was I'll give you the money at the party and now it's a date?"

"Seven," he reminded her before walking away.

"I hate you!"

He held up his hand in acknowledgement of her statement. But she was seething because it either didn't affect him or he'd been told it so many times that he didn't care anymore. She was going for both - not that it helped in any way.

"So what's the go with this party?" Kara asked turning back to Kale, still annoyed.

"It's supposed to be a closed event. Invites only."

"And I wasn't invited because..."

"You weren't around when the invites were sent out," he said starting to walk back to Hailey.

"Oh...so dress requirements?"

"It's uh...old, I guess. Anything earlier than the 1950s."

"I have four hours Kale," Kara reminded him.

"Hailey?" Kale asked as they returned to her. "Have you got any clothes you can lend her?"

"Um..." she looked Kara up and down. "Yeah. I've got a friend who gave me some stuff."

"Cool," Kale said, "I leave her in your capable hands. Seven, my house."

"We know," they replied in unison before looking at each other and smiling. Kara actually had a feeling this might be fun.


	19. Chapter 19

Jayne waited near the school in the shadows of a building as she waited for Damon to meet her.

"Out of a tree this time?" his voice came from behind her.

"I don't spend all my time in trees," Jayne replied heftily. "Did you do it?"

"As much as could be done," he said vaguely.

"That's not answering my question," she said, looking around the corner to see if anyone was there. "Has she forgotten?"

"Yeah, well…mostly," he said hesitantly. "There may be a slight miniscule problem though."

"What did you do?" Jayne sighed.

"The compulsion didn't completely work. It's like you said, she's immune to it."

"And you followed her today to fix any errors," Jayne continued. "So what's the problem?"

"I tried to compel her to forget again, but I'm guessing vervain."

"Where would she get vervain from?"

"How am I supposed to know?" Damon replied before looking at his watch and saying, "I'd better get dressed for Kale's party, I may have to downplay the usual charm. There's going to be humans there."

"Maybe I should be handing out vervain by the bucket load," Jayne murmured before coming to a sudden realisation. "Oh no. Does this mean I have to spend six hours with you?"

"You make me sound like a disease."

"That's because you are," she replied.

"Well," he started, "Fortunately you won't have to spend much of the time with me. I have a date."

"Who's the unfortunate girl?" Jayne said, her face empathetic. "She's going to need a vaccination."

"Kara."

There was a moment's silence before Jayne said, her voice shaking with restrained anger, "I said wipe her memory, not date her."

"I guess this is the fine print eh?"

And Jayne couldn't argue because she had agreed. But she still stared at him in annoyance.

"So I guess I'll see you tonight," Damon said hastily, seeing the dangerous glint in her eyes

"Only if I'm incredibly unfortunate," Jayne replied as he backed out of the alley.

"What era?" Damon called back, asking her about her costume. "Let me guess. Masquerade?"

She felt like throwing something at him. But in broad daylight with townspeople walking past, a stake wasn't going to get overlooked. Making jokes about her mask was something many vampires had died for. Only those who knew her REALLY well - or not at all - had even seen her without it. Namely Hailey. Which gave her the reminder that she needed to speak to her about what she'd written on the internet about Nathaniel Henning.

But still angry, she let him have the last word before climbing up the three metre wall at the back of the alley. Running swiftly through the trees behind it, she eventually came to Hailey's house...well mansion.

Jayne climbed the lattice before sitting herself in the open window. She stared at the corridor, waiting for Hailey to come upstairs. Ten minutes later she arrived home. Two minutes later, the door opened downstairs.

"Just dump your stuff on the couch," she said. "There's food in the pantry, help yourself."

"Thanks," another all too familiar voice said. Hailey walked up the stairs, jumping when she saw me sitting patiently in the window frame.

"It's a bad habit to leave these open," she said.

"I've got the memo," Hailey said with a smile, if Jayne had shocked her, she didn't show it. "What can I do for you?"

"Well," Jayne replied, hopping down from the window. "You know those clothes I gave you a while back."

"Yep," she replied.

"You mind if I borrow some back?" Jayne asked.

"Sure," Hailey said, walking into a room. "I was just getting them."

"You've got company," Jayne commented, referring to the voice she was sure was Kara's.

"Kara James," she replied, confirming it. "She needed a costume. Do you mind if I lend her one of these?"

She pulled out a huge box of clothes from under the bed effortlessly and but them on her bed before opening the box without even cutting the sticky tape.

"A little risky," Jayne said. "There is an oblivious person downstairs."

"With human hearing," Hailey said. "She's not hearing any of this."

"Still," Jayne reasoned, pulling the top outfit out.

"Let's not go back to the 1960s," Hailey said, staring back at Jayne knowingly.

"We all know you loved getting high," Jayne said with a huge grin.

"I don't remember you being the responsible one," she said pulling out a dress before throwing it to the side. "Weren't you the one encouraging us?"

"And I've learned the error of my ways," Jayne replied solemnly. "Drug dealing is out of the question nowadays. It seems the police are harder to bribe."

Hailey pushed aside another dress, laughing quietly. Until her face grew confused as she looked down at the ancient clothing at the bottom of the box. "You know you could probably give this stuff to a museum?"

"But then what would we ever do when costume parties came around?" Jayne said. Hailey responded by handing her a mass of light blue material.

"It might take you a while," she said. "But I trust you'll get there eventually."

"Wow," Jayne said looking at the material. "It's been a long time since I wore this."

"It's ancient history nowadays."

"You're telling me," Jayne said, folding up the Grecian dress and putting it in her bag. "I'll see you tonight yeah?"

"Definitely," she said.

"Oh, and can you slap Damon for me? It'll make me feel better if someone besides me injures him."

"Alliance Jayne," Hailey replied.

Jayne sighed before running out into the hall and out the window, into the setting sun. 


	20. Chapter 20

Kara looked at herself in the floor length mirror behind Hailey's door. Twirling around, she couldn't even believe it was her looking back at her through the drastic change.

"This is amazing," she gushed, staring at the flowing gold material. "It has to be older than time."

"So be VERY careful," Hailey warned. "If you ruin it, I'll be dead."

"There's another one," Kara said, pointing to the box. "Why don't you wear that?"

Hailey stared at the box and shrugged away the dress that was almost identical to the one Kara wore. "I might go a bit more recent. I don't think ancient really suits me."

"So…1900s?" Kara asked in response.

"Um," but she was saved answering by her phone ringing. Exit Wounds by The Script rang out through the room and she looked at the caller ID questioningly.

"Kale," she said wearily to Kara as she pressed answer. "What's wrong now?"

Kara heard inaudible ranting on the other end of the line.

"Pants," Hailey said randomly, "And are you seriously changing your mind NOW?"

Pants? Kara thought, What the hell was she on?

"He's changing the dress code," Hailey relayed to Kara. "I am going to shoot him tonight. Apparently nobody wanted to actually dress up old and so he's changed it to formal black and white."

"Seriously?" Kara groaned, glancing back at herself in the dress. "You're not going to be the only one killing him."

"Hear that, you?" Hailey said into the phone. "You'd better hide behind those people that will now be all boring in black and white because we will be coming with murderous intent. Good-bye."

She hung up and looked at Kara. "I guess we're going to have to find some different clothes. And they definitely won't be in this box."

Kara reluctantly removed the Mayan dress she was wearing and put her normal clothes back on. "I'm not sure if I have anything black. Possibly white…"

"Don't worry," Hailey replied, waving away her words. "Wait until you see this."

She led Kara through double doors on the left wall that Kara hadn't seen before into the most enormous wardrobe she'd even seen. "How do you even own this many clothes?" she asked in astonishment, staring at the colour coordinated cloth lining the walls.

"I refuse to throw anything out," Hailey replied. "And I get a lot of hand-me-downs."

"Black and white," Kara said as she walked along a wall. "Hailey…why is there a wedding dress here?"

"Uh…" Hailey stood in front of it saying, "Hand me down…my uh, mother's."

Not being able to think of any other excuse, Kara looked through the dresses until she found a white one that was beautiful. Elaborate beaded designs surrounded the neckline and it ended in a butterfly design reaching just past knee-length.

"Wow," she said. "Where did you get this from?"

"That one…was actually from that box," Hailey said with a smile. "Good pick. I put the newer clothes in here; the ancient ones still in the box. Pick anything you want."

Kara knew what she wanted and she pulled it down quickly, admiring the way it changed colour in the light.

"Here," Hailey said, passing her an intricate mask. "This was made to go with it."

"Do you often attend masquerade balls?" Kara asked.

"No," Hailey said as she pulled a black dress down from next to her. "But I have a friend who loves them."

Kara glanced down at her watch and noted in shock that it was already six. "I'd really better get home," she said. "Thank you so much for these!" She hugged Hailey before running down the stairs and picking up her bag.

"See you tonight!" Kara called through her window as she reversed out of the driveway.

"Yeah," Hailey said to herself even though Kara was already gone. "I just hope that Kale keeps his friends under control."

She knew that most of them drank…human.


	21. Chapter 21

Jayne pulled heard her phone vibrate in her jacket pocket. Jumping across her room, she rummaged through the pockets before pulling out her professional phone and throwing it to the side when she realised it was the wrong one. Searching still, she eventually found her personal phone. Opening the text, she saw a message from Hailey telling her that Kale had decided to change the dress at the last second.

"Black and white," she muttered to herself. "I haven't worn white in two hundred years…"

And in a house full of vampires, she wasn't about to start.

Looking through one of her suitcases which was yet to be unpacked, she found her all time favourite dress. Quickly, she pulled it out and hung it on her door. It took her a long time to find the mask that went with it but eventually she did. Pulling it from the base of the suitcase, Jayne took time to just stare at the delicate paintwork in black and silver before smiling.

It was rare that Jayne ever took a day off. And really, tonight would be no different as she was still trying to determine who was trying to kill her. Hailey had told her that every vampire going to the party was a member of the alliance trying to keep themselves hidden, but lying wasn't unheard of. Especially in a group of vampires that large.

"Alliances," she scoffed as she began to curl her straight, black hair. "They never last."

Darkening her eyes with eye make-up and painting her lips with silver lip-stick – a very rare find – Jayne finally applied a light blush and looked at herself in the mirror. A pang of regret hit her as she stared at her own face. The make-up could not hide the scars that marred her face.

Picking up the mask, she placed it against her face and tied it behind her head arranging her hair over the tie. Standing up, she pulled her dress over her head, remembering the last time she wore it – over 100 years ago.

…

There was going to be an attack, so Jayne was going to a ball.

Jayne stood in front of her floor length mirror, staring at herself with a smile. Hearing the front door bell ring, she walked excitedly towards it and opened the door. A tall, dark haired young man stood there with a smile. A mask covered his face that was almost as intricate as her own.

"Miss. Perrin," he said, bowing from the waist and holding out his arm. Jayne closed the door and hooked her arm into his, a glowing smile upon his face.

"Thank you for accompanying me Nathaniel," she whispered as they walked along the cobbled street together.

"It is an honour," Nathaniel responded, smiling back at her.

"Your presence will make this night much more enjoyable," Jayne replied as they began to ascend the stairs of the hall.

The people at the door welcomed us and they continued inside. "The one thing I love about masquerade balls," she said. "You can't tell who anybody is."

"I know who you are," Nathaniel replied.

"And I know who you are," Jayne smiled. "But who else can you see?"

"A great many happy people," he responded, taking Jayne's hand. "And an incredibly beautiful, mysterious woman."

Jayne felt a happy flutter as Nathaniel led her into the centre of the room where couples danced. As they danced anonymously through a series of steps. Jayne felt her worries of an attack fade away as her and Nathaniel finally stopped dancing. A servant found them and offered them drinks which they took gladly. Chatting in their corner, Jayne found herself oblivious to the other guests. That was…until Kara arrived.

It was hard to mistake her. A pure white dress and delicate mask surrounded by her white-blond curls that made her seem like an anonymous angel. Every man turned to look at her, wishing they were escorting her. And every woman stared at her, wishing they could be her. Jayne was used to the reaction, but what she wasn't expecting was the look on Nathaniel's face. And her heart dropped when he put his glass down on the table and whispered, "Excuse me," before walking towards Kara.

Kara's face lit up upon seeing him and Nathaniel seemed incapable of leaving her side for the rest of the night. All Jayne could do was stand on the sidelines looking for vampires and attempting to ignore Nathaniel and Kara's speechless attraction.

Again, was all she could think, it's always Kara.

Removing herself from the people around her, she travelled swiftly towards the front door, needing to get out of the stuffy hall.

"Hello Slayer," a voice came from behind her.

Jumping, Jayne turned around a stake in her hand, prepared to face whoever was there.

"Hailey," Jayne breathed in relief, sliding the stake back into the hole in her skirt where it became invisible to onlookers. "You aren't wearing a mask?"

"It itches," Hailey shrugged. "Have you had any luck finding the rampant vampire?"

"Not yet," Jayne replied wearily, "But you'd think with a gathering this big he would be around here somewhere."

"There's the problem with people throwing masquerade parties. You can't tell who any anyone is."

"That's what I love about them," Jayne responded. "The anonymity. Nobody in there knows who I am."

"Except of course, Nathaniel," Hailey stated.

Turning around angrily, Jayne's expression turned to one of harshness, "Do not mention him again."

A moment's silence passed before Hailey whispered, "He did the same thing as all the others. Didn't he?"

"Kara," Jayne muttered hopelessly. "They always choose Kara."

They stared at the stars until people started to come outside. Two people that Jayne knew. But at the moment it was a dangerous time to be near her – anger was fuelling her fighting nature. She knew she couldn't harm Kara however much she wanted to, but Nathaniel was another story.

Jayne shot forward as Hailey cried out, "NO!"

Jayne didn't realise it, but Hailey had seen something that she hadn't. Blinded by rage, Jayne had missed the very obvious fact that she had trained her whole life to notice.

Nathaniel was a vampire.

Pushing Kara out of the way, Nathaniel had already turned and awaited Jayne's attack. She had her stake in her hand and pushed towards him.

"Jayne?" he asked in confusion, pushing her right arm away from his torso. "No…you can't be."

"My thoughts exactly," she responded, regret shooting at her heart within her. "You should've told me. We could've saved the town this spectacle."

"There was nothing to tell," he grunted pushing Jayne away. "I'm a vampire – so what?"

"You've been murdering the people of this town!" she yelled, plunging forward again.

"That wasn't me!" Nathaniel exclaimed desperately. "I would never kill anyone!"

"You would say that," Jayne responded. "You don't want to die."

"And it's the truth," he replied. Jayne's movements slowed to a stop as she stared at him, hearing the truth in his voice. Her stake dropped to the ground and she slumped. "Why did you choose Kara?" she asked finally.

"Because I love her," he replied honestly. "You can't help who you fall in love with."

"No," Jayne replied looking up into his eyes. "You can't."

Nathaniel turned to where Kara had fallen and took her by the hand. Her white dress had been cut by the brambles, but she didn't seem to care. About her dress – or the fact that Nathaniel was a vampire.

"You told her?" Jayne asked in horror. Kara was never supposed to know. "How-"

"She figured it out," Nathaniel replied. "I was teaching her history one day and she asked me why we never had lessons outside. I couldn't give her a reason…so she researched – and found answers."

"Then I found a witch," Kara continued, speaking up. "And she made him a ring so that he can go out in sunlight."

"Well lucky you," Jayne responded to Nathaniel sarcastically.

"Don't be like this Jayne," Nathaniel pleaded.

"Just leave," she said finally. "Or I will kill you."

Nathaniel didn't hesitate a moment longer and walked off with Kara towards her house.

"Jayne," Hailey sighed, running down to meet her in less than a second. "It's just going to hurt more now."

"No," Jayne replied. "It won't hurt anymore. I don't expect anything else. I have to accept that if it's a choice between me and Kara, they will always choose her."

"Jayne," Hailey responded sympathetically. "I'm so-"

"Enough stalling," Jayne said picking her stake up off the floor. "We've got a vampire to catch."

"No need," Hailey replied quickly, closing her eyes and listening intently. "He's on Scarbrook Road."

Jayne looked at Hailey in shock before running without a moment's delay. "Are you sure?"

"I know vampires Jayne," Hailey responded as they ran. "I'm positive."

Kara's door was broken down and muffled screams came from upstairs. Jayne sped up to where she saw a vampire with his jaw clamped upon Kara's neck. She jumped him but he caught her. Jayne couldn't help but sigh with relief as she saw Kara crawl away even though she felt like strangling her over Nathaniel.

Jayne was pushed against the wall by the male vampire. "Slayer," he hissed. "I've been expecting you."

"Bet you weren't expecting this," she muttered, attempting to swing the stake into his back – but he blocked it with his other hand. This was going to be a challenge.

Bending her arm back to her face, the vampire smiled cruelly and Jayne grew afraid. Scars from cuts made by her stake never faded – and it was coming dangerously close to her face.

She cried out as the stake sliced through the skin of her cheek and travelled upwards lifting her mask off her face. Jayne managed to push her arm away from her eye, but it still throbbed as the vampire finally relinquished his grip on her arm to knock the stake across the room.

"Now you know how we feel," he hissed. "Goodbye Slayer."

His face moved out of her view towards her neck and she shook in fear. Jayne was going to die. And it wasn't even an honourable death. Death by vampire…

But his grip faltered just before his fangs pierced her skin. Looking around, Jayne looked for what had just happened, but she couldn't see anything. The vampire's body fell to the ground before her – her wooden stake protruding from his back.

She followed the direction it came from to where Nathaniel lay, staring at the man contentedly. Kara was with Hailey in the doorway and she said to her, "Get Kara out of here. I have to wipe her memory in the morning."

Hailey nodded before walking out with her arm around Kara. Jayne knelt down next to Nathaniel and stroked his ripped apart face – noticing another wooden stake in his heart. She felt a tear welling in her eye even though this man had caused her so much grief.

"You should be dead by now," she muttered.

"I had to say goodbye," he coughed. "Look after her."

"It's what I do," Jayne said simply. "Goodbye Nathaniel."

"Goodbye Jayne."

He closed his eyes and his skin turned grey and cracked. She bit her lip and held back her tears, but before leaving, took the charmed ring from his finger.

"I love you," Jayne whispered before walking from the room in her ripped dress and no mask into the cold night.

…

Jayne had altered hers and Kara's dresses after that night, but she refused to keep Kara's because of the painful sight of her Nathaniel together. If the theme was Black and White, she dearly hoped that Kara wasn't wearing hers.

Sliding her modern, charmed, silver stake into the space in the skirt, she walked out the door and tucked the ring she wore on her necklace into her dress. Staring up at the stars outside, she sighed and walked down the road towards Kale's house.


	22. Chapter 22

"Kara, there's someone at the door for you!" Ally's voice rang through the house as Kara finished tying her shoes around her ankles.

"Coming!" she yelled, picking up her mask and purse before running to the door.

"Don't wait up for me," Kara said as she walked past Ally. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Have fun."

"Will do," she replied, opening the door and stepping outside.

"You got my money?" was the first thing she asked the person sitting beside the door.

"Right here," Damon replied, holding out a bag that looked really heavy.

"You have got to be kidding me," Kara replied, taking the bag and feeling her arm drop from the weight of it. Peeking through the elastic binding the top, she saw hundreds of coins amassed inside. With as much effort as she could, she threw it back at Damon.

"You purposefully did this to annoy me, didn't you?"

"If I told you yes, would the bet be off?"

"Fine," Kara responded in exasperation. "But let's just get to this party before anything else goes in your favour."

"Fine by me," he said, opening her door with a slightly mocking bow. "Miss. James."

She evil-eyed him as she sat down in the comfortable leather seats. "So why are you going to this party?" she asked as he climbed into the driver's seat. "It can't be because you have friends."

"Ouch," he said, starting the car. "Is that really any way to start the night?"

Kara raised her eyebrows at him and he turned his eyes back to the road and reversed out of the driveway.

"As hard as it may be to believe I do have some people, who…well, think of me as a friend."

"Like Kale," Kara said.

"Yes, exactly like Kale," Damon responded. "What I think of him…well, that's a completely different story."

"That's not very nice," Kara said doubtfully. "Are you socially inept or just a general loner."

"I wouldn't say socially inept," he replied. "More…mistrustful."

"Why?"

"Well, if you know him like I do, you'd know why. His wi-girlfriend told me all I need to not trust him."

"You're in that good with his girlfriend?"

"Was," he corrected. "Used to be. Past tense. If she ever hears you saying that, she'll kill me, so I'd advise you not to repeat it."

"Who says I'd care if she did? By the way, who is she?"

"Hailey," Damon said.

"They're dating?" she asked incredulously. "I thought they were just really close."

"Really, really close," he said.

"So, why did you tell me about the party?"

"Because this night will be less boring if somebody is there who's not afraid to talk to me."

"People are going to be afraid to talk to you?" Kara asked in mock surprise. "But you have such warm and sociable qualities."

"I am Damon Salvatore," he replied.

"I had noticed."


	23. Chapter 23

Jayne watched Hailey's face widen in shock as she opened the door. "You're really wearing that?"

"As far as I can tell," Jayne responded. "You going to let me in?"

"Sure," she said stepping aside. "But Kale might have some rules for you."

"Of course he does," Jayne replied, rolling her eyes and sidestepping Hailey.

"All right rule number one," she heard from behind her as Kale walked into the room. "No killing any vampires on this premises."

"Well this is going to be a complete bore," Jayne murmured.

"On this premises," he repeated, "if you have a grudge, take it down the road."

"Well, you obviously aren't that close to these people."

"It's a vampire party," he said. "I don't even know half the people that are coming."

"But, doesn't me killing someone then break the alliance?"

"You are a professional, so I'm assuming you can take care of a few dead bodies."

Yeah, if damned Salvatore wasn't watching my back all the time.

"Whatever," she murmured. "Just out of curiosity. Hailey's already told me that there wasn't anyone else she really wanted left alone, but what about you. 'Cause if I'm about to kill them, a last minute warning isn't going to stop me."

"Eh…just a few people. Quentin Ferloc, Jayden Marlin, Sarah Hart and Rodney Draemor."

Jayne ticked them off her finger and committed them to memory. "Any other rules?"

"Under no circumstances mention it is my birthday," he said.

"Gotcha," Jayne replied, winking. She knew that Kale was only ten years old – vampire age that is. "It's weird, when you're human, it's about staying young. But when you're a vampire it's about getting old."

"Well you've got that down pat haven't you," Hailey responded. "Human and young."

"Through and through," she said with smile.

"Do not," Kale continued. "And I repeat DO NOT hover protectively around the very limited humans that will be here because I will be dead by tomorrow when the vampires find out I invited the slayer."

"But you didn't invite me…Hailey did."

"It doesn't matter to them does it?"

"True," Jayne said. "Rules finished yet?"

"I think so," he replied, walking past her before calling back, "If I think of anything else I'll let you know."

"All right then," Jayne finished, looking at her surroundings. "Is the party seriously going to be here?"

"We've got two vampires and a slayer to move a few pieces of furniture around," Hailey explained. "I don't think it'll take very long."

"No," Jayne said. "But it's all a bit bland."

"Trust me," Hailey replied. "Come seven, it most certainly won't be."

…

Jayne sat on the side of the make-shift dance floor sipping her coke and watching the gradual influx of people – well vampires – coming inside. She was surprised to see quite a few vampires accompanying humans. It had used to be rare – unless of course they just wanted them for blood. Which, she rationalised, they most probably did.

But she felt relatively safe. There had been no advances upon her. So whoever wanted to kill her wasn't taking any risks with getting caught. Jayne felt her careful gaze begin to lessen and her worries fade away. But she did almost choke at one stage.

When Kara walked in wearing her white dress and mask, it wasn't the same as last time. Maybe it was because her hair was dyed a dark colour or because the dress was different…

But all the excuses Jayne made up for herself couldn't deny the fact that, with a mask on, Kara looked exactly like her.


	24. Chapter 24

"Are you seriously, not going to leave my side?" Kara asked in astonishment. "A bit overprotective don't you think?"

"Not when it comes to you," he replied, looking around the room and sneaking his arm through hers as they walked in. She sighed and let him lead her into the masses.

"Wonderful to see you here," Hailey said to someone Kara didn't know before turning to see her and Damon and walking directly towards them. "Hide me!" she whispered to Kara.

"What's the matter?" Damon asked before Kara could.

"I wasn't asking you," she said shortly, evil-eying him and looking back at Kara. "Every single one of Kale's friends is attempting to flirt with me. And they all know that we're together!"

"Mm," Kara murmured before continuing pointedly. "Some guys just don't know when to take a hint."

"I can take a hint!" Damon said.

"No you can't," Hailey scoffed.

"Is everyone in this room against me?" he asked incredulously.

"Yep," Kara and Hailey responded in unison.

"Then perhaps I'll go find someone who appreciates my companionship. Ladies."

"Good luck," Hailey called after him before turning back to Kara. "Probably gone to go and trail after the next pretty girl he sees."

"Gives me hope that someday soon I'll be rid of him," Kara said before inspiration struck. "What's this uh, history, I hear about between you and Damon?"

"What," Hailey said, her expression changing drastically.

"Are you okay?" Kara questioned as she saw her face change before her eyes.

"Yeah," Hailey replied hurriedly. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Your eyes," Kara started.

"What about 'em?"

"They…um…never mind," she frowned as she remembered the distinct change she had momentarily seen in Hailey's eyes. "You and Damon?"

"Never existed as far as I am concerned," Hailey said making Kara even more suspicious. "I'll see you later."

She hurried off in the opposite direction leaving Kara standing alone in a corner. Kara walked across the room dodging the ever amassing bodies on the dance floor until she neared the opposite end of the room. Looking around for someone to talk to, namely Kale, she found herself looking at Damon Salvatore who stood at the other end of the room – kissing another girl.

She looked purposefully in the opposite direction until she spotted Kale. "Hello," Kara said as she ran towards him. He held a drink and was talking to someone who promptly left when Kara arrived, but not before giving her a once over with an unnerving glance. And something about those eyes seemed familiar…

"Hey Kara," Kale said, "Glad to see you could make it."

"Yeah," Kara replied, looking back at the now empty wall where Damon and that girl had been. "Me too."


	25. Chapter 25

Pushing Damon away abruptly, Jayne attempted to run away but he put his hand out to stop her.

"Whoa," he said, catching her around the waist. "What was that about?"

"Er…Mad ex-boyfriend. Crazy – mad. As in wanting to kill me – mad."

"So, I know I don't have your brain, but how does kissing me help?"

"It was more, covering my face so that he doesn't see me," Jayne replied, still trying to remove herself from Damon's grasp.

"Well you could've just pretended you were talking to me."

"But talking to you annoys me," she said in exasperation.

"We don't have to talk…"

Jayne heaved in annoyance and stepped hard on his foot. "I don't like you," she started as he stepped back, staring at his foot. "Hell, if you were on fire, I'd be laughing. That kiss meant nothing to me and looking back right now, I should've expected you to act like this...note that it will never occur again."

"You suck," Damon replied.

"Then we're done talking. By the way, weren't you supposed to be with Kara tonight? I don't see you trailing after her."

"She and Hailey were teaming up against me."

"Good," Jayne said appreciatively. "And goodbye."

"Hang on," he said pulling her back again.

"What do you not get about 'I hate you?'"

"I get it fine," he said. "But how can you hate me when you don't know me?"

"I know about you and I've spent the past week getting to know you – unfortunately. So, do yourself a favour and stop talking to me before I mess up your pretty face."

"You think my face is pretty?"

Jayne stalked off in the opposite direction and into the next room where she walked over to the bar where one of Kale's friends was manning the bar. Never mind the fact that she was astonished he actually had a bar, she walked up and asked for a double shot vodka and downed it in one.

She couldn't believe she'd slipped up. She'd been so close to losing control and the urge wasn't leaving her. Ordering another drink, she tried to sate her thirst. And it helped…barely.

"You aren't worried that you're going to somehow drop your guard?"

Hailey's voice came from behind her and she turned around.

"You know I don't get drunk," Jayne replied. "At least not on this stuff. I'd definitely need something a lot stronger."

"You never drink," Hailey responded, "That's why you never get drunk."

"Well you obviously weren't paying attention at your wedding," Jayne said. "Although, I do suppose you had other things on your mind."

Hailey smiled, "The party seems to be going well."

"Yeah, unless you count Damon Salvatore – the ass."

"Hear hear," Hailey said, taking her drink from the barman. "You've seen him then?"

"Yeah," she replied, not elaborating. "He came with Kara."

"That annoy you?"

"Not as much as I thought it would."

"Oh?"

"I may have to protect her, but Kara started to annoy me before she even met Nathaniel. I think she and Damon make a pretty good couple. I hope they're happy."

"The weird thing is," Hailey said, "I know you, and the look in your eyes is not making me believe that sentence."

"Really?"

"Yeah, you see…there's something you're hiding from me. Something big."

"Aha. And this thing would be?"

"I was hoping you'd tell me. After all, we are supposed to be friends."

"Look, everyone's entitled to their secrets Hailey. Just like you and Damon and the history that neither of you ever talk about. My secret could be slightly bigger, but I think that's reasonable. I've got many years on you."

"Does everyone seriously have to be bringing that up tonight," she murmured in frustration. "I'll see you later."

"All right," Jayne replied, motioning the guy behind the bar for another drink. "Secrets and lies," she muttered to herself, "It's what my life seems to be built upon."

Damn, she hated it.


	26. Chapter 26

"Having fun?" Damon asked out of the blue, coming up behind Kara and making her jump.

"I noticed you were."

His expression made Kara believe that he honestly had forgotten the girl he'd been making out with less than an hour ago.

"You, a girl, that wall over there. Close proximity of the facial kind if I remember correctly."

"All right. Let me explain," he started.

"It's all right," Kara said, feigning understanding. "You're a dick. I don't think it needs much explanation."

The hallway seemed like a great place to be to her at that moment, but Damon seemed incapable of letting her go.

"SHE kissed me," he responded. "Something about some crazy-ass ex-boyfriend of hers. I barely even know her."

"I don't even know why I care," Kara replied with a sigh. "It's apparent that you don't."

"Er…" he had no response to that. "Look…I'm…sorry…"

"Why do I have trouble believing that?"

"Why do you dislike me so intensely?"

"I don't!" But immediately upon saying it she knew the anger she felt towards him was really just jealousy. She'd just let it slip…and she could tell by his expression that Damon knew exactly what she felt.

"Would you like to dance?" he asked randomly, completely ignoring the direction and tone of the conversation.

"Fine," she said grudgingly, accepting to dance with him. A slow song started up just as they entered and all she could say was, "You picked the worst possible time, didn't you?"

"I actually quite like this song."

"Really?"

"No," he scoffed as he took her by the waist. "It's absolutely horrible. It just gave me an excuse to talk to you in a place I know you won't run away from me and I never see you again."

"Which would be a major bonus for me," Kara said, sick of bantering with him.

"Your necklace is very pretty," Damon, said making an attempt at a compliment. One which Kara shrugged off indifferently. "It's a strange colour for wood."

"I never asked what was in it," she responded. "I got it from the girl I live with, it belonged to her mother."

"That was nice of her," he muttered, distracted.

"Yeah, apparently I was sick this morning and she decided to give it to me even though I can't actually remember being sick. It's like there are these little gaps in my memories."

"Unfortunately time does that to us all," Damon said as the song ended. "Would you excuse me? I need to have a word with my brother. Don't worry, I'll send Elena over here to talk to you."

Kara found herself being less angry and annoyed as she walked back into her corner. A doorway next to her that had been closed before stood open a crack and she could see a small beam of light shining through. Peeking through the door, Kara saw about five people gathered around the table, pouring over books that looked centuries old.

Leaning too close to the door, Kara accidentally pushed it forward. Within seconds she was pulled inside and pushed against the door – strong hands clamped over her mouth and throat.

"How many times do I have to tell you to leave her!" Kale called from across the room.

"But she looks like the sorceress!"

"She isn't," Kale said. "Let her go."

Kara breathed out in relief as the hands moved away and she stepped forwards, rubbing at her sore neck. Kale came towards her and starting speaking to her, "Nothing is happening in here. Go back to the party."

"You honestly expect me to believe that?" Kara asked in astonishment, bounding towards the table but bodies covered all the papers in a millisecond.

"Get her necklace!" Kale yelled.

A hand reached out towards her and tore Ally's mum's necklace from Kara's neck effortlessly.

"Ouch!" she exclaimed looking around for who had the necklace. "Be careful, that's not mine!"

"Vervain," the guy with the necklace said. "Rosewood, Wolfsbane and…Yew? Honestly, who makes necklaces out of Yew trees?"

"Either way, she needs compelling. Somebody please do it now, I really want this meeting adjourned."

Kara attempted to run back to the door. She had no idea what was going on here but she wanted out. Really fast. But unfortunately, that's exactly what every single person in this room seemed to be. Kale had her up against the door again and all Kara could whisper was, "So much for being a helpless little nerd eh Kale?"

"Go back to the party," he said, "There was nothing here."

"There was nothing here," Kara replied vacantly. Her necklace was pushed back into her hands as she walked back outside. The door closed completely behind her and she leant back into her corner twisting the necklace in her hands…

But her old and plaited vervain bracelet tingled lightly against her skin beneath her gloves.


	27. Chapter 27

I may be the slayer, Jayne thought to herself, but I am also Jayne Perrin.

"I think in another life you could've been an alcoholic," Damon said, suddenly next to her.

"Unfortunately I've never had another life," she replied. "I'm not dead like you."

"Ooo," a voice came from behind her. "I like her."

"You're not supposed to like her!" Damon continued as Jayne turned around in a split second to face the guy behind her – recognisable as Damon's forever younger brother Stefan.

"Stefan Salvatore," he said, holding out his hand.

Jayne looked from Damon to Stefan's hand quickly before staring suspiciously at him. "If he hasn't already told you my name then I expect it to stay that way."

"I'm the one who found it," Stefan replied, lowering his hand. "But if you want to go that way…Good evening Slayer."

"Hello Stefan."

Damon looked between them in astonishment. "You're perfectly civil to him!"

"That's because he lives a perfectly civil vampire life unlike you," Jayne responded. "Don't you have somebody else to go off and annoy?"

"No, we need to talk to you," he said, stepping in closer so that we stood in a close-knit triangle.

"I do need to breathe," Jayne sighed and they each took a step back.

"X," Damon said to the guy behind the bar. "I'll take over for a while."

"Thanks bro."

He slipped out of the bar and Damon took his place. "This is absolutely tiny!" he exclaimed.

"Are you going to start drying those glasses?" Jayne asked.

"No," he said taken aback. "But I'd prefer a private conversation."

"Fine," she said sliding back around to face him as Stefan took a seat next to her. "What are we talking about?"

"Damon said that you came here tonight to find who was trying to kill you."

"Oh God, it's not you two is it?"

"No," Damon said, "Never mind the fact that I would absolutely love to."

"Damon," Stefan chastised, "Get serious, please."

"All right," he finished, taking Jayne's drink from under her glaring eyes and drinking it quickly before running out of the room in a dark blur.

"Has he been annoying you?" Stefan asked.

"Incredibly so," Jayne responded. "You may want to warn him that drinking doesn't even put a dent in my reflexes. And also, I always have a stake on my person. Even now."

"All right," Stefan said, catching the warning for himself as well. "Well down to business. There's this group within the alliance who aren't content with just hiding. They want to make sure that any threat to their existence is killed – human or not."

"So…are you a part of the alliance?"

"No," he said. "Damon is, but only because he has to be in on everything. I don't want Elena getting too involved. She's been hurt too much before."

"Then why are you and Elena even at this party?"

"I'm keeping an eye on Damon to make sure he doesn't do anything stupid."

"Like trying to kill Katherine?"

Stefan's head spun around but Jayne simply kept looking at the blank room.

"How do you know about Katherine?"

"Not much," she admitted. "But enough to know that she's back after she was assumed dead in that burning church. And she wants you. Word of advice, break up with Elena. But if you guys ever want to go on a crusade to try and kill her, I'm willing to help."

"We might take you up on that. But Damon seems to be under the impression that he can do it himself."

"Of course he does," Jayne said. "He's Damon."

"True," Stefan replied. "Anyway, I couldn't figure out many of the people who are trying to kill you, but I did get one. Sarah Hart."

"But I'm supposed to be NOT killing her," Jayne said with a frown. "Kale said he wanted her kept safe."

"Hey, I could've been wrong."

"Maybe," she murmured. "I'll catch you later?"

"'Kay," Stefan said as Jayne got up and walked out of the room, down the hallway and through the main room faster than blinking before winding up outside the front door holding a flailing Sarah Hart with an iron grip on her upper arm. She's seriously weak for a vampire, was all Jayne thought.

"Are you trying to kill me?" Jayne asked Sarah as they sped down the road.

"No," Sarah whimpered. "No, I swear."

"Cut the crap," Jayne said let go of her arm and pulling out the stake. "I have a reliable source telling me that you will do whatever it takes to protect yourselves. AKA – kill me. So," she slid the stake down her arm, hearing her scream out in pain. A twinge of regret shocked through her but it was immediately replaced by something else. The exact same feeling she'd felt when she'd been close to Damon – except ten times stronger now that the blood was visible.

Vampire bloodlust.

She hated admitting to herself that she even felt it – but that couldn't deny the fact that she did. Jayne couldn't take her eyes off the blood seeping down Sarah's arm until Sarah said, "Fine, maybe I do have a part in it."

"Then, promise or no promise, you're dead."

A minute later Jayne was sitting in her tree halfway across town watching the smoke rise from the spot where she had set Sarah's corpse alight.

Now all she had to do was wait for Damon Salvatore to meet her. Because tonight she had to fulfil her end of the bargain. Kara's memories were gone – now Damon got to ask as many questions as he wanted.

And regrettably Jayne had to answer them.


	28. Chapter 28

Kara and Elena were talking in a quiet sitting room where there were no dancing bodies or people trying to hide stuff from Kara.

"So you don't like carrots?" Elena said incredulously while Kara tried to figure out how on earth they had gotten onto the subject.

"No," Kara explained. "The colour is seriously off putting. I mean, bright orange? Seriously."

"But they're supposed to help with eyesight and everything," Elena responded.

"My eyesight is fine as far as I can tell," Kara continued before acting like a blind person on purpose. "Now where did I put my glasses…"

Elena chuckled just as Damon walked back into the room.

"What do you want Damon?" she asked wearily.

"I," he said with emphasis, "don't want anything. Your boyfriend's looking for you."

"Well," she said, turning back to Kara. "It was lovely speaking to you. And don't worry, I'm sure you'll catch up on the work you need for school in no time. If not, I'm sure I can pull in a few favours."

"Thank you," Kara said with an honest smile as she got up and walked out of the room. Her seat however was soon filled by Damon. "Can you drop me home?" she asked, quite bored by the whole party.

"So soon?" Damon asked in shock. "The party hasn't even started yet."

"Well, didn't I tell you? I don't like parties, and I have to be up early tomorrow to study. So, I would really like to go home."

"All right," he sighed surprisingly, giving in much quicker than Kara thought possible. Even offering his hand to help her up. Her shock must have been plain upon her face because he responded, "I have somewhere to be as well."

That kind of ruined her hopes at getting to know a 'nice' Damon. But she followed him out, waving goodbye at Hailey as she went.

There was some fairly decent music playing as they drove home. When a familiar yet annoying song came on, Kara picked up Damon's iPod and glanced at who it was.

"You seriously have this on here?" she asked incredulously, staring at the artist.

"You don't like it?" he inquired.

"I would rather kill myself than listen to Taylor Swift!" she said, shivering before stopping it and changing it to something better.

"Anberlin?" Damon asked as she sat back in her seat and Readyfuels sounded through the car. "I never would've picked that."

"Best band in the universe," Kara commented. "But coming in a close second is Paramore."

"Favourite song?"

"Misery Business," she said. "I can play it on expert on Guitar Hero."

"Me too. We'll have to have a play off some time."

"Is that another date?" Kara asked. "After this horrible one!"

"It wasn't horrible," he said, but after seeing her expression he quickly continued, "Well, maybe it wasn't fantastic. But that's not my fault. You weren't mingling."

"I spoke to Elena," she said.

"You ONLY spoke to Elena," Damon responded. "Of course you were bored."

"Well…" Okay, she didn't have a response to that.

"2.00 tomorrow," he said as they pulled into the driveway. "I'll pick you up."

"I do have a car you know."

"But you don't know where I live," he replied with a wink as Kara stepped out. "Bye bye!"

"See ya," she responded, walking up to the front door and checking her watch. Only eleven o'clock. Wow. Getting her keys out, she noticed that Damon was still waiting for her. That's nice, she thought as she opened the door. Stepping inside, Kara turned to wave goodbye, but he was already speeding off down the road. So she shut the door and went to bed.


	29. Chapter 29

"You weren't about to leave were you?"

Jayne actually had been, and let out a deep sigh as she saw Damon sitting across from her.

"You're going to break this branch," she commented. "And I will not be happy when you do."

"Of course you won't," Damon said. "But where do you want to talk?"

Jayne jumped down onto the road and looked back up at Damon, who had already landed next to her. "How do you do that?" he asked as they started walking.

"Do what?"

"You have to answer my questions," he replied. "You can't back out now."

"Fine," Jayne said, turning around to face him whilst she kept walking. "But at least ask an easier question."

Jayne knew he was thinking hard about what could be an easier question than that. But he finally asked, "What is your name?"

"You already know that."

"I mean, before you were Jayne Perrin, who were you? You told me that Jayne Perrin existed for exactly four hundred and twenty seven years. In my mind that number doesn't equal eleven hundred and two."

"Before that," she said, feeling regret stir within her. She knew she should have made that deal. "Before that I was known as Juliette, Natalya and most probably a few others I can't remember."

"So…who were you born as?"

"I don't know."

That statement left Damon curious. "No lying, remember?"

"I'm not," Jayne replied. "I honestly don't know. When I was seventeen, I woke up one morning with complete amnesia."

"Well you're no help then," Damon said. "Wait, when you were seventeen?"

"Haven't aged a day," she said, but she didn't grin. She was still too preoccupied with the fact she was telling the person she hated all her secrets. Jayne didn't even have time to move before Damon stood directly in front of her with his hand tucked underneath her hair against her neck. She spun around faster than the speed of light and caught his hand and pushed him away with little effort. He still flew two metres away.

"Huh," he started, getting up and shaking his hand. "That rules out the possibility that you were a vampire. You've got a pulse."

"I'd probably kill myself if I became a vampire," Jayne said, continuing walking down the road. "By the way, when we run out of road, you run out of questions."

"You can't have hated us since the moment you were born," Damon frowned, ignoring her previous comment. "Unless your parents were manic vampire haters?"

"Hey, I don't know anything about the early years," she said. "When I woke up, I didn't have parents. I had super powers and a message written on a rock above my head. 'Destroy the undead'."

"Aha," Damon said. "So you hate us because of a rock?"

"In the hundred or so years after that, we found more than a few reasons to hate vampires."

"We?"

Jayne sighed, kicking herself internally for the slip up.

"So you and Kara are exactly the same age," Damon started, and Jayne lost all hope at keeping her out of the picture, "look the same and seem to have some really weird relationship that relies upon you taking away her memories."

"Yes," Jayne said, seeing the next sentence where Damon was heading. "We are twins."


	30. Chapter 30

Kara sat next to her windowsill, toying with the wooden heart. She heard Ally turn over in her sleep next door and let out a sigh. Putting the necklace to the side, Kara pulled off her bracelet and stared intently at it – trying to uncover its secrets in the moonlight.

It was during fifth period that morning that she'd found it. Not lying on the floor, or caught on some random's locker, but already on her wrist. How long had it been there? Not even she knew.

But later that afternoon after she got back from Hailey's, Kara had received a phone call. Private number and very confusing.

"Don't take the bracelet off. If someone tries telling you what to do, go with it."

And that was it. No hello, definitely no goodbye, and no name.

So now Kara sat here, trying to figure out what on earth was going on, why she couldn't remember little things and why she could hear with distinct clarity any movement next door. What Kale and his mates had been trying to hide from her and what the hell was this annoying feeling tugging at her insides that she immediately associated with Damon Salvatore.

"Bleeding Mystic Falls," she muttered. "Life would've been so much easier if I'd just stayed in LA."

Kara sighed and put her bracelet back on, at the same moment seeing her phone light up on her bedside table. Tiptoeing across to it, she saw private number flashing across the screen and hesitantly hit answer.

"What do you want?" she hissed quietly. "It's 2am!"

"I gave you protection from vampires and warning," a female voice started. "You can't even say I disrupted your sleep because you're awake."

"Who are you?"

"I'm afraid I am not going to answer that one. Unwelcome listeners could be eavesdropping. So, all I wanted to know was, how did things go tonight?"

"Fine."

"There was no major crisis I need to know about?"

"I did what you told me. My friend tried to tell me what to do and I pretended like I listened."

"He believed it?"

"I'm pretty sure he did."

"Good."

"You said something about vampires…does that mean they exist?"

"You're living in Mystic Falls and you DON'T know about the vampires? God, you are one girl with a messed up mind."

Kara's mind was spinning. Vampires. She guessed that kind of explained the whole 'do whatever I say thing' that Kale had going on, but weren't they supposed to have super strength and all that? How come Kale had acted so weak on her first day? Then what she'd just thought finally sunk in.

Wow. Kale was a vampire.

"Anyway, it's unwise to tell anyone about that bracelet of yours. Just keep pretending that you're ignorant of their existence."

"And I'll be safe."

"Well, you'll be safe from me; I can't promise you'll be safe from them."

"I don't suppose I'm getting your name?" Kara tried again futilely.

"Listening ears Kara," the woman repeated. "We'll talk soon."

Kara crawled into bed that night with a sinking feeling that she was involved in something that was going to get her killed. And with vampires, she didn't think it would be a very pretty death.


	31. Chapter 31

"Okay," Damon said, no surprise whatsoever flickering across his face, "That's not too hard to believe."

"Huh?"

"Well you can't have always been getting rid of Kara's memories, so she had to have done something for all that time. By the way, how do you do that?"

"Er, it was one of the powers I had when I woke up with amnesia."

"So, your "powers"," Damon said, "What are they exactly?"

Jayne sighed before replying, "Strength, speed, compulsion, healing." She knew that all her powers made her look like a vampire, hell she even felt like one sometimes. Especially with the er…bloodlust… But she knew she wasn't. Jayne had a beating heart that, whilst it had been beating for an extremely long time, was still beating. She was human.

"And immortality," he added.

"That's not a power," Jayne stated.

"It may as well be," Damon continued. "So I guess the huge question that's been in my mind for the past thirty seconds."

And here it comes.

"A silver stake?"

Jayne was astonished that that was his big question. She was expecting something about why she had to take away Kara's memory but he'd chosen the stake?

"I dealt with wooden ones for around 1000 years, I needed a change."

"But how do they work? I get that any kind of stake will kill humans but only wooden ones kill vampires."

"Or charmed silver," Jayne explained glad that they were finally onto a subject that wasn't directly related to her. "I got someone to craft this for me then sought out a really powerful witch who owed me a favour and here I am with my favourite stake."

"So that's why the witches don't like us," he commented. "They tend to lean more towards your end of the field."

"The world does look a fair bit more lively on my end. And I'm nicer, so that probably helps."

"I'm nice…when I have to be."

"You mean, when you want something."

"Maybe."

Jayne looked up and saw the end of the road in the distance. She smiled thankfully and started walking slightly faster. Unfortunately Salvatore noticed.

"Whoa whoa whoa," he said, grabbing her arm. "The road's not finished yet."

Jayne huffed and twisted her arm out of his grasp. "Well then ask your next question, 'cause it's the last one you're going to get."

"Fine," he said. "What's the reason why you have to keep taking Kara's memories?"

Jayne took a second in which a fair few choice words ran through her head before speaking.

"Well…it all started in the fall of 1451."


	32. Chapter 32

Kara sat up in her bed – awaking abruptly from her terrifying dream. Staring at her hands, she saw them shaking uncontrollably, but she couldn't remember what her nightmare had been about.

Her head hurt, but it wasn't a headache kind of pain, it was worse. And it was steadily dissipating as she moved off her bed and towards her bedroom door.

Listening out carefully for any sign of movement in Ally's room – she still didn't know how she was doing that, but had decided it was way cool rather than frightening – she tiptoed down the hall. And almost as though Kara was in a dream, she gravitated towards the library room.

She walked as if she was still asleep towards the piano and sat down. Pressing down on a key she found it familiar and before long, both of her hands played chords together.

The dark room seemed to change around her as the music swelled into beautiful arpeggios that grew faster and faster.

"Kara!" a voice came from across the room.

She stopped playing abruptly and turned around, flinching when she saw sunlight pouring into the room through and open window.

"You shouldn't be here!" an unfamiliar person said from the doorway. "Nathaniel's waiting down by the river."

Kara couldn't understand the little leap of happiness she felt upon hearing the name but she replied, "Thank you Miss. Trille," and hurried past her out of the room. Kara realised that while she was running she'd had to pick up a dress. Looking around her she saw the floor length material around her and grew confused. This felt so real…but it had to be a dream.

Her feet seemed to know where to take her and soon she was walking through trees and hearing voices in the distance.

"…I don't need your help Stefan," one voice said. "She won't tell anyone."

"She can't be trusted," another voice replied. "I've done some digging-"

"I don't care what you've found," Nathaniel replied. "She would never betray me. She even gave me this."

Kara crept closer to see the boy she assumed to be Nathaniel showing a ring to-

Bam. Stefan Salvatore.

Now that was a face she knew, but on an even deeper level, she knew Nathaniel.

"Nathaniel," Kara called, running through the trees to meet him. Stefan disappeared in a second.

"Was he a, er-"

"Vampire?"

She nodded.

"Yes," Nathaniel replied. "But as you can see, he's gone now."

"I'm sorry I'm late," Kara said. "But it's nice seeing you outside of the house."

"Thank you," he replied with a smile. "It's amazing."

"Anything for you," she answered.

"Will you come to the party tonight?"

"I will," Kara said. "My mask is ready, the dancing awaits."

Nathaniel kissed her hand. "Then I shall see you there."

He began to walk away and Kara stared after him and she pinched herself and it didn't hurt.

But the next moment she woke up, and the bracelet around her wrist was burning.


	33. Chapter 33

"The world was smaller back then" Jayne started. "Kara and I had already travelled beyond the known world in search of high populations of vampires and we decided to have a holiday."

"A holiday?" Damon asked incredulously.

"Yes. A holiday in England where Kara rested and I hunted."

"What kind of holiday are you talking about?"

"At that time there weren't a lot of vampires hanging around in England. Because of the Black Death, most of them had been wiped out. Yes that's right," she continued, seeing the look on Damon's face. "It could kill you. And so there weren't many vampires or humans in England. Well, save someone that I didn't really want to try and kill," Damned Klaus, "So I pretty much just stalked the streets by night."

"Honestly, do you ever sleep?"

"When the need arises," Jayne shrugged, "Two, maybe three hours a day. Anyway, there isn't much road left so back on track. Kara had a little rendezvous with her then 'love of her life' and I didn't worry too much. She was a slayer; she could take care of herself. Or at least, at the time, I'd thought so. Turns out she came back three months later married to a vampire named Jack who I just so happened to know as being a five-star jackass."

"Did he know," Damon interrupted earning him an annoyed glare from Jayne. "I mean, about the whole 'slayer' thing?"

"Unfortunately yes," she sighed. "He also knew that Kara and I were sisters but Kara had no idea that he was using her for revenge against me. Two months later, he wound up dead."

"You killed him?"

"No," Jayne scoffed. "I would've liked to, don't get me wrong. Much like the way I feel about you I suppose. I'd love to kill you but there's an alliance standing in my way."

"So…that's it? You wiped her memories because she was sad?"

"Hey, you've done it before," Jayne shot back. "Jeremy Gilbert was sad. But no – that wasn't the reason. I went slaying in Russia, found an old witch's book, attempted to find the witch who had disappeared off the face of the earth and unfortunately didn't succeed. I went to Germany and visited Kara where I happened to walk in on her in a not so happy moment."

"She was depressed over some guy," Damon started. "Never mind the fact that if he's as big of a tool as you say he is then she shouldn't have even bothered."

Jayne shook her head, "It was worse than depression. She'd attempted suicide."

"Kara tried to kill herself?" Damon's face showed disbelief.

"Tried," Jayne said, her voice filled with compassion. "But she couldn't because of our rapid healing abilities. I couldn't heal her depression away and neither could she. So I asked her if she wanted me to take away her memories and I can still remember her exact words.

" 'Why would I want that,' she said, 'So I can just continue killing? I've lived too long. I don't want to live anymore."

"But I couldn't watch her kill herself. So I took all her memories. Every moment since we woke up to see that rock. And I gave her a past of a normal human. But her curiosity was never curbed and her abilities still remained. So every few years I'd have to do it again. My strength built up, but so did her resilience and soon I had to wipe her memories every two years then every year. That's why I have to protect her. From herself."

"But you told me that it could kill her…"

"Eventually it will," she said. "There's more than a thousand years hidden from her in the back of her mind. No one knows what that could do."

"But giving her back her memories could kill you…how?"

"She never wanted to forget. And back then, she was definitely one for revenge."

"So, Kara with memories equals you dead?"

"Pretty much."

Jayne could see Damon beginning to smile and she stepped onto the dirt as the bitumen ended.

"Just note that with me dead, she'd then turn on you and you'd have an angry and vengeful slayer. And because of Jack, she doesn't pay attention to any alliances. I may love and protect her. But I'm warning you, memories or not, she's a bitch."

And with that, Jayne ran home.


	34. Chapter 34

After intending to wake up at 7.00, Kara wasn't actually up until 11. She had already been awake however she seemed unable to stop thinking. And when she got started…it didn't seem to end.

Her head wasn't hurting, it just felt like it was stuffed with cotton wool and she'd run headfirst into a steel coated brick wall. Which meant she couldn't seem to walk in a straight line and her eyes kept on blurring but it didn't hurt. It was more of a numb sensation that gradually faded as she got ready and attempted to study to no avail.

Part of the reason was that her mind was flying a gazillion miles above the ground lost in thought and the other factor was that for some reason even though she couldn't remember any of the stuff in her textbooks yesterday; today she was bored with everything she was reading.

Reading through the first few chapters of her geography textbook, Kara could remember learning all of it, but then she went further, reading past where they were up to in school, yet already knowing everything that she was reading and not where she'd gotten the information.

As it neared 1 o'clock and she started to get hungry, she made herself some noodles and sat down to eat it. While she was cleaning up, her phone rang. It was seven metres down the hallway, on the floor close to her window.

And it was on silent.

"This is crazy," she muttered to herself as she picked it up off the floor and opened the message flashing on her screen.

On my way.

"Whoops," Kara muttered, having completely forgotten that she was supposed to go to Damon's. Quickly she ran towards the bathroom to have a shower before he arrived. Surprising even herself, she was there faster than expected.

Turning around and looking back the way she came, her brow furrowed. She took a few steps forward and ran down the corridor, but at normal speed. Shaking it off, Kara walked back to the bathroom, feeling a little jolt but ignoring it even if she did see herself jump a few steps.

"Nothing's wrong with you," she muttered to herself as the water cascaded over her. "You're just having a special moment."

She rushed back to her room with her towel wrapped around her expecting to see her clothes laid out on her bed, except she saw a guy in her room looking at some of her books. It took her a moment to realise it was Damon. Immediately she felt self-conscious in the fact that she was wearing nothing but a wet towel.

"How the hell did you get in here?"

"The front door," he said without looking up. "You may need to lock it occasionally."

"Well do you mind?" she asked pointedly.

"As a matter of fact I don't," he responded with a smirk, putting the book down. "But apparently you do. I'll be outside."

He walked past her and she let out a sigh of relief as he closed the door behind him. Hurriedly, she threw on her clothes and walked out of the room drying her hair with her towel.

"Sorry," she called down the hallway. "Just a minute!"

Rushing down the hallway to put her towel away and brush her teeth, Kara felt the little jump thing again only this time it didn't surprise her. It sort of felt natural.

Wow, she thought to herself, definitely going crazy.

Two minutes later she had her handbag, keys and phone and was walking out to meet Damon who sat with his eyes closed, laying on the lounge.

"You ready to go?" he asked, keeping his eyes shut.

"Yep," Kara replied. "Let's go. And I dearly hope this is better than last night."


	35. Chapter 35

Jayne was sleeping.

Well, to put it more accurately she was in more of a meditative state, but that was sometimes the closest to sleep she ever got. Her eyes had been closed for at least two hours, but her senses were on red alert. As they always were.

Her mind was wandering. Through memories, through thoughts…through every bleeding truth she'd told Damon Salvatore.

He frustrated her so much that as soon as he even dared to slip up, he'd be dead. Even sooner if the Alliance broke up quickly – which hopefully it would. Then all her problems would be solved after she went on a killing spree.

However, the smile that had appeared on Jayne's face at the thought disappeared quicker than she'd thought. Again with the guilt, she thought to herself. What is wrong with me?

Opening her eyes, she saw sunlight streaming in through her window and by the whereabouts of the sun it was already past twelve. Yawning, she looked outside and down the street. A few people rode bicycles past her house and a couple were walking their dog down the street but Jayne? Well, she was going scouting.

Changing into a pair of black jeans and one of many various band t-shirts out of one of her rapidly depleting suitcase, she pulled her still slightly curled black hair into a loose bun and brushed her hair across her scar in a useless attempt to cover it. Scowling, Jayne rummaged through her make-up bag and found her concealer and foundation. Masks in broad daylight tended to scare people so, just like the other day when she'd gone to the library, she covered up the scar by layering heavy make-up over it. As an extra precaution, Jayne also found her glasses and put them on her face rather than putting in her contacts.

"Oh how I hate daylight," she sighed as she grabbed her books that she'd taken from the library and putting them in her backpack. It was so much easier to see at night, she thought, at least for me.

Which again, brought her back to how much she was like a vampire. But she shut that thought out extremely quickly.

Taking a shortcut through the woods (well…it was longer, but she could run fast without being spotted), Jayne made her way to Hailey's house. She actually knocked at the front door for once rather than making her way in through a window.

"Wow," Hailey commented, opening the door. "Knocking and no mask? Where did the Slayer go?"

"She's just Jayne today," Jayne replied, walking inside. "How did clean-up go after the party?"

"Only took us an hour or so once everyone left."

"Which was at around 5.21 this morning?"

"Er…I guess?"

"I know the exact time of sunrise every morning," Jayne smiled. "They all left five minutes before it arrived."

"That is so freaky dude," she said.

"And I know it," Jayne responded. "I was just wondering how many are still in town."

"Shouldn't you already know that?"

"Hey, it's not my job to know everything. Just most things."

"I can't say exactly. The alliance branches out across six towns and that's a lot of vampires. A lot of them will be moving on soon."

"Soon?"

"A few days or so."

"That's quick," Jayne said. "They know I'm here?"

"Well…after Sarah's friends realised she was gone, they figured that something was out there, so they're leaving as soon as they can. They don't know it's you, but they've still warned everyone."

"As long as they don't kill anyone, I'm good," Jayne replied. "Fewer vampires in this town is better. Hey, do you want to come with me into town. I haven't had a chance to walk these streets by daylight in a hundred years."

"Sure," Hailey said. "Just let me lock up."

Three seconds later she stood in front of Jayne, stuffing her keys into her handbag. "By the way," she started as she closed the door behind them. "Kale's going to be pissed at you for at least a few days."

"Of course he is," Jayne said.

"Well, you did kill one of his closest friends. You can't help it if he's a bit peeved."

"Honestly, she was trying to kill me," Jayne reasoned. "It was kill her then, or kill her later. Personally I wasn't willing to wait."

"Wow Jayne, do you own any self-restraint?"

"Nope. Race you to the Mystic Grill?"

"How old are you?" Hailey asked incredulously.

"You'll be guessing for a while," Jayne smiled before beginning to run into town. Wow. Damon Salvatore knew more about her than her best friend. That was weird.


	36. Chapter 36

"NO WAY!"

"That is my worst possible score ever," Damon said with distain.

Kara shot him a death stare as he put his plastic guitar aside.

"Good job though," he added with a mocking smile.

"How can that be your worst score ever," she said. "You got a hundred percent of the notes!"

"But you distracted me and I strummed accidentally at the beginning."

"Bullshit," she replied. "There is absolutely no way you can beat that."

"Oh I have," he said. "You just don't want to admit that if I can do better then you're never going to beat me."

"I can beat you," Kara said confidently. "Right after I've had a drink."

Walking through the house towards the kitchen, Kara got her glass and filled it with water from the tap. As she drank it she tried to figure out how Damon's fingers had moved so fast. Kara knew that every normal person wouldn't have been able to beat her. That was the hardest song on the whole game, the highest level, and yet Damon Salvatore had beaten her by one, that's right, ONE percent.

She was annoyed with herself, but other than that, she was also curious. Kara finished her drink before coming back into the room, flexing her fingers.

"All right," she started. "Game on."

The next song, she made sure that every move she made was exact and yet somehow, he still beat her. "You're rigging this somehow," Kara stated, sinking into a sofa. "I have no idea how, but you are. You can't possibly be that good."

"Well, I'm not cheating," he replied. "Believe me, if I was, you'd know."

"That's impossible," she muttered, knowing full well that she was saying that partly because she was a sore loser. But there was definitely something fishy going on here. Mind you, it definitely wasn't anything to do with fish because the house smelt like anything other than that. It smelt old, really old…

"How old is this house?" Kara asked, standing up and looking around.

"Er…ancient?"

"You don't think you're getting away that easy do you?" Kara continued attempting to get past him.

"Look if you really want to know," Damon replied, blocking her way again, "Talk to Stefan. The little nerd is more likely to know about this house than I am. He probably knows when the foundations were laid. Don't you Stefan?"

It took Kara a moment to realise that Stefan was in the same room. Glancing behind Damon and up the stairs, she saw him leaning on the banister wearily.

"Yes," Stefan started. "I do."

"Well of course you do," Kara huffed. "You're superb at history."

"You are too."

"Pssht," she said, recalling the history class where she'd had all the answers. "Even I have no idea how I knew that information. Honestly, I've never set foot in Mystic Falls before in my life."

"You sure?" Stefan said. "Not as a child or anything?"

"Nope," Kara continued, turning back to Damon to see him hastily cover up a 'Stop-speaking-now' sign that he was giving Stefan.

"What's not being said?" she asked him.

"Nothing," Damon said. "I'm just absolutely astounded with your knowledge, Stefan tells me it is quite amazing."

"Meh," Kara responded, sinking back into her seat and picking up a random book from the table. "I don't know how I know all that crap. You know history, you seem intelligent enough. You figure it out 'cause I got absolutely no clue."

The book she'd picked up appeared to be written in a different language and yet she had absolutely no trouble reading it. But so many things had gone weirdly today it didn't particularly make much of a difference to her rapidly deteriorating mental health.

"Why are you reading a book about…Katerina Petrova? Who the hell's she?"

"Nobody," Damon snipped, whisking the book away from her. "Some girl from a few centuries ago."

"Why are you interested in the history of this particular Bulgarian family?"

"Why do you care?"

"There are too many whys in the air," Stefan interrupted. "I'll be in my room."

In other words, Kara thought, don't tell her too much because I can still hear.

"Just a little something to do when I'm not pestering you."

"So you've admitted that you do actually annoy me," Kara said. "Finally."

"No point in denying it," he replied, sitting down next to her.

"So, who is this girl?" Kara asked, snatching the thick volume back and opening it at a picture of the girl who looked a lot like Elena. "I don't think Elena is 'Just some girl from a few centuries ago' 'cause I saw her yesterday."

"It's not Elena," he replied. "Even though they look the same, this is Katerina Petrova. By the way, how did you know the family was Bulgarian."

"I can read, write and speak over twenty-eight languages," Kara blurted out before clapping her hand over her mouth in shock. Why had she said that? As far as she knew she could only speak English and a bit of Japanese. But why had she read and comprehended the Bulgarian? "I, er…"

"Need to go?"

"Yeah," she mumbled, dropping the book onto the table and picking up her bag. "I'll catch you later."

"See you," Damon responded as Kara walked out and shut the door behind her. But with her freaky superhuman hearing she did hear Stefan saying to Damon, as clearly as if he was standing next to her, "We need to do some checking up on her."


	37. Chapter 37

Kara stared at a single mark on the wall with an intense concentration. Closing her eyes, she rolled her head from side to side and focused on her hearing. She extended it outwards, across the road, four streets away until it began to fade.

Opening her eyes, Kara stood up and breathed deep before turning to the door and running out of the room and arriving at the backyard fence in less than a second.

With ever widening eyes, she looked around the garden for something to break. What brought on this sudden urge? Well, nothing other than a surge of strength she suddenly felt. So she punched a rock…and the sixty centimetre immovable boulder snapped cleanly in two.

And it didn't even hurt.

Staring at her hand vaguely, she walked back inside slowly just as the front door opened and closed.

"Kara?" Ally's voice called as Kara heard her put her bag on the bench. "Are you here?"

"Yeah," Kara replied, walking to Ally purposely slower than she now knew she could. If she herself was being freaked out, how was Ally going to feel?

"Are you busy tonight?" she asked, "I was thinking of attempting to cook."

"Sounds cool," Kara responded. "But I might turn in early, school and all that."

"Well, it'll be ready at about seven, assuming nothing goes wrong."

"Here's hoping," she said with a smile as she walked down the corridor into her room. Mainly because she'd heard her phone vibrating on her bedside table. This time, rather than getting a strange phone call from a private number, she had a text message.

"'Powers awoken then?'" she read at a whisper. "'Meet me out by the hiking track near Fell's Church. Two minutes.'"

Glancing out her window towards the forest, she covered her ears as she heard the sound of Ally pulling pots and pans out of the cupboards in the kitchen.

"Control it," Kara muttered to herself, breathing in and out deeply, feeling the strength of her hearing dissipating. "Ally! I'm going out. I'll be back in about ten minutes." She hoped.

"All right," Ally responded. "Can you close the front door, it's a bit cold."

"Sure," Kara replied, walking outside. Looking up and down the deserted street she looked towards the forest and began walking. And walking faster. Jogging, sprinting and then running quicker than if she was flying.

Looking around, she searched with high definition vision for the hiking track by Fell's Church. After a minute she caught sight of it and within five seconds she was there.

So was someone else.

"Elena?" Kara asked. "You're the one who gave me the bracelet."

"So not completely awoken then," she replied, completely ignoring what Kara had said. "I gave you the bracelet; that should have helped. I didn't expect Damon's compulsion to be that strong. Oh well, mine's stronger."

In the blink of an eye, she was in front of Kara and she was shocked. "What are you," Kara started but was cut off as she spoke.

"Kara James," she said. "Forget everything that has been said to you and taken from you by Jayne Perrin or any vampire that has come your way. Kara James – You are a slayer."

It was like a wave receding in her head as everything that compressed her memories was finally washed away. And rather than feeling like all of her real memories were flooding her head and making her sick, when she finally blinked, it seemed like she was seeing the world with new eyes.

Kara realised that what she'd thought was her remembering a few days ago, was nothing in comparison to this. 1102 years. And about 500 years ago she'd met a certain vampire. A certain bitchy vampire who – through circumstances that she refused to let be known – she owed. Big time.

"Are we back?"

"Unfortunately," Kara replied. "What is it this time Katherine?"


	38. Chapter 38

Jayne looked intently at the varnished wooden door before knocking purposefully.

She heard footsteps inside as a young woman appeared at the door. With a confused expression she asked, "Who are you?"

"Wow," Jayne commented, "You're the first person I've met who noticed I'm not Kara first time seeing me. Well done."

"Kara has keys and a very different aura to you. So once again, who are you?"

"Jayne Perrin," she replied. "And you're Ally."

"Yeah," Ally said her confusion fading. "I figured I'd be seeing you sooner or later."

"You were wishing it was later weren't you?"

"I'd hoped," Ally replied, stepping aside so that Jayne could enter. "You don't happen to know where Kara went do you."

"Contrary to popular belief, I am not her babysitter."

"Hang on a second," Ally said, "I'll turn the stove down."

"No point," Jayne muttered. "I don't think that food is getting any less burnt."

A minute later Ally came out drying her hands with an old tea towel. "So," she started, leading Jayne into the lounge. "What brings you to Mystic Falls?"

"Well, first of all, how did you know who I was?"

"Old family history books. You seem to turn up a lot."

"Yeah," Jayne replied. "I do that. Er, next question, why was Damon Salvatore able to get into this house?"

"By the front door…"

"But you invited him in?"

"Was I not supposed to? No..he's not-"

Jayne nodded in confirmation.

"So that's what the deal with Kara's memories was," Ally realised. "I gave her a vervain imbibed necklace just in case."

"Good," Jayne replied. "At least that will protect her from people like Katherine."

Although, Jayne thought, Katherine could probably rip it off without Kara even noticing. Don't think about that. Wait, I came here for a necklace…

"Damn," she muttered. "I actually came here for a necklace. Heart shaped. Made with Vervain, Rosewood, Wolfsbane and Yew?"

"Uh…" Ally trailed off making Jayne's hopes fall.

"That was the necklace you gave to her."

"I did," she replied. "Sorry."

"Don't be, it's really no use if you haven't carried on the family tradition."

"How do you know I haven't," Ally said.

"You noticed my aura was different, but you didn't tell me what I was."

"You know what you are," Ally responded. "I'm not a practicing witch, I don't need to be."

"Well…"

"You want the favour?"

"Does your family history detail absolutely everything?"

"No," Ally continued. "You just happen to appear a lot. Kara was mentioned too, that's why I offered her a place here."

"Were you hoping I'd come along Ally?" Jayne asked intuitively.

"Most of our family has hoped you'd come along so that the burden of the 'favour' wouldn't be passed on to future generations. Honestly, I think whatever the favour is was lost hundreds of years ago. My mother didn't even know when she told me about it."

"The favour, eh?"

"You going to explain it or not?"

"Well not with that tone young one."

"A tad belittling," Ally replied. "But I can deal with it. If you do need a witch, which I'm assuming you do considering you came to me, I can do the job. But you'd need to get the necklace back. It would be awkward if I took the necklace I gave to Kara."

"I'm sure I can manage it," Jayne responded, standing up. "So I guess I'll see you as soon as I have the necklace back."

"All right," Ally said. "I'll try and brush up on my skills but can you come by when Kara's at school?"

"I'm not stupid Ally. I've known Kara for a lot longer than you have. But thank you for taking care of her."

"She takes care of herself," Ally replied. "I just thought it best that she wasn't living in the same house as say, a psychotic vampire or an ignorant innocent who would look at her very strangely when she suddenly had memory lapses all over the place."

"Anyway, thank you."

"No problem," she said as Jayne walked out of the door and closed it behind her. Quickly, Ally stood up and walked back into the kitchen, moving to turn the heat back up on the stove. Cutting herself short, she stared at the elements and questioned herself.

It had been eight years since she'd practised magic – would she still be able to do it?

"Incandesco," she murmured, placing her hand above the pot of sauce feeling the surge of heat coming from the hot plate. In a split second she saw the sauce began to bubble and barely had time to launch herself across the kitchen before the sauce exploded.

"Wow," was all she managed looking up at the sauce-stained ceiling from her position on the floor. Looking at her hands she recalled the power and also the fear of the power that she felt when she used magic.

Staring at her reflection in the oven she ignored her fears and smiled saying, "I've still got it."


	39. Chapter 39

"Wow," Kara commented sinking into a lounge in Katherine's living room after a short sprint to a hotel nearby. "So you're back in town to get the moonstone back from your ex-boyfriend whilst attempting to get back together with Stefan. What's my part?"

"You want a part?" Katherine asked.

"No, I do not WANT a part but I do not want to be indebted to you any longer."

"All right well, just act as my little spy for a while. I'll call you whenever I feel like it, because I do that."

"I'll stick you on my speed dial," Kara responded sarcastically, standing up and walking to the door. "And thanks...I guess."

Katherine waved away Kara's gratitude responding with, "It's of great benefit to me."

"And that's pretty much the only reason why you do things isn't it?"

"Yes," she responded as Kara opened the door.

"Later," Kara replied, walking out and down the corridor but within a split second something had knocked her into the wall and pinned her by her throat.

"Don't you even think about double crossing me Kara," Katherine threatened. "Or even your powers won't save you from the death I'd give you."

Effortlessly spinning out of Katherine's choke hold, Kara pushed her against the wall seeing small cracks forming in the brickwork.

"Do not doubt my strength Katerina Petrova," Kara warned. "You have been subject to it once before. I would've thought you'd remember it."

Kara released Katherine who rubbed her neck profusely in an attempt to remove the red mark that had appeared on her pale skin.

"I await your call," Kara replied with a mock bow before running faster than the speed of light towards her home. She didn't know what she was going to do now. No need to study, no need to train.

The one thing she did know was that Jayne – wherever on earth she was – was going to pay dearly for what she'd done to her.


	40. Chapter 40

"Look I know Elena doesn't want Jeremy involved, but honestly the kid's not completely useless in a weird teenage wannabe kind of way."

Damon lounged by the fire as he spoke to Stefan on the phone.

"He shouldn't be there. If Elena finds out-"

"It's not like she'd kill you."

"There are worse things than death," Stefan responded.

"Oh there you go again with your whole human emotion thing." The phone beeped. "Hang on, I got another call coming through."

Answering the incoming call, he was greeted with, "So what time are we meeting at the party?"

"Seven. Wait a sec." Switch back to Stefan.

"So I'm bringing along some assistance, hope you don't mind."

"You're not supposed to bring dates. Anyway, I thought Kara didn't know about any of this."

"It's not Kara," Damon said. "It's the slayer."

"Best buddies now are we?"

"Far from it. She has a personal vendetta against Katherine."

"Then her help is much appreciated. See you at seven."

"Can't wait."

And back to Jayne.

"You there?"

"Yes," she sighed. "I don't like phones. Are you home alone?"

"Yep," he replied. "Why do you ask?"

He heard the soft background noise of a few papers falling to the ground and a strong wind before he heard the soft clink of glass behind him. Spinning around he jumped towards the sound, knocking Jayne (who had run into his house) to the ground in the process.

"Thank you," she commented pushing him off her, standing up and ending the call on her phone with a smile.

"You have a different mask on today," Damon commented. "I don't think green is really your colour."

"I don't particularly care, I just threw something on before coming here. So, what's the go for tonight?"

"Masquerade," he replied. "Your favourite."

"I'd already figured that much. But how are we going to kill Katherine?"

"Trap her in a room upstairs," Damon explained. "Stake her. The classic approach."

"Don't you think she might be expecting something like this?" Jayne replied.

"Not if she thinks we're about to give her the moon stone."

Jayne literally fell into the chair she was about to sit on, her eyes wide in shock.

"What?" she asked dangerously. "You have the moon stone?"

The look on Jayne's face made even Damon want to cringe. "Yes."

"And by killing Katherine you're hoping that you won't have to give it to her."

"Yes."

"Are you intending to break the curse?"

There was a delayed silence as Damon contemplated his answer. "No," he finally said. "But we want to prevent the stone from getting to Katherine. Now just seemed like the opportune time to stop her EVER coming back for it."

"Awesome. So, I'll meet you there?"

"Sure," Damon replied. "It'll take you what, all of ten seconds?"

"Around about," Jayne agreed, beginning to walk towards the front door.

"What are you wearing?" Damon called as she opened the door.

"You'll just have to wait and see," Jayne responded, speeding out of the door just as Damon's phone rang once again.

"Hello," he said.

"So," Kara's voice on the other end started. "Do you need a date for tonight?"

"I actually wasn't intending on going," Damon lied. "Maybe you'd like to hang out with Elena. I hear she's not going either."

"It seemed like fun though."

"It's not really my scene," Damon continued. "You have fun with whatever you do tonight then."

"Okay. Bye."

Damon took his time hanging up the phone wondering why on earth Kara's accent had changed to something he couldn't quite figure out.


	41. Chapter 41

"Pick up, pick up," Kara muttered, tapping her fingers impatiently on the table.

The bell rang.

In an instant, Kara was opening the door and saying to Katherine, "Come in."

She tried to take a step in but the invitation didn't seem to be valid.

"That's weird," Kara commented, staring around the doorframe. "It should've worked."

"It only works for humans," Katherine replied, motioning Kara outside to meet her. She closed the door behind her. Kara was disconcerted by the fact that Katherine thought she wasn't a human., but she shrugged it off.

"No lock?"

"Ally's home," Kara answered.

"Ah yes, the witch who has no idea of the power she's capable of. Never let her team up with Bonnie Bennett. We'd all be dead in a second."

"I'll bear that in mind," Kara said, trying to remember if she'd ever met Bonnie Bennett. "So, I rang Damon before, he's apparently not going to the party."

"He has to if he doesn't want to see every person in this town murdered. Him and Stefan; they will both be there to share in my pleasure when I have the moon stone safely in my hand."

"Which means he didn't want me there."

"And that means they're planning something," Katherine deducted. "And I doubt it's pleasant, at least on my account. I'm going to need to get in touch with my witch."

"You have a witch?"

"Don't we all?" Katherine responded. "Seven o'clock at the Lockwood Mansion."

"Aye aye captain," Kara replied with a mock salute and walking back to the door, halting with a start as she saw Ally standing there with a questioning glance on her face.

Kara opened and closed her mouth several times before saying, "Look, I can explain."

"I'm fairly certain that you can," Ally responded calmly. "But Katherine Pierce – bad news."

"I think we both know that," Kara responded. "And you've known all along who I was haven't you?"

Ally nodded, "I have."

"So, I guess you want that family heirloom back?"

"The necklace?"

Kara nodded, shooting upstairs and arriving back in front of Ally in a split second carrying the wooden heart dangling from her hand. Ally took it quickly and put in her pocket before stepping aside and holding the door open.

"I've got nothing against a vampire slayer," she said. "Especially one as prestigious as you. So you are welcome to stay here under the same conditions as before. I'm going to the Lockwood's but I'm going to a friend's to get ready. I'm assuming you'll be at the party?"

"Of course," Kara replied sincerely. "Wouldn't miss it."

Ally smiled and walked past her, her car door unlocking with a loud beep. As she exited the driveway and drove down the road, she pulled out her phone but waited until she was at least five streets away before ringing Jayne.

"I've got the necklace," she said when she heard the phone pick up on the other end.

"Well," Jayne hesitated before answering. "Fine, come to my house, but aren't you going to the party?"

"It doesn't take me that long to get ready."

"Well...is this line secure?"

"Er...yes actually," Ally replied, remembering the charm she'd used as soon as she'd picked up the magic again.

"All right," Jayne continued. "15 Crossline Street."

"Really?" Ally replied questioningly. "You live on Crossline? And nobody's noticed that you live in the dead centre of town?"

"Hiding in plain sight."

"I'll see you in a few," Ally said, hanging up the phone as she drove through town. But just before she drove onto Crossline Street, she took a left and swung into a small dead end street. Driving up the driveway of the house at the end of the road, she stepped out quickly and walked up to knock on the door. It opened before she had touched the wood.

"Ally?" the short dark girl asked.

"Sorry to bother you before the party Bonnie," she said. "But i was wondering...do you happen to have my Grimoire?"


	42. Chapter 42

Jayne's hair was braided around her head and finished with a small flower. She was wearing a light peach coloured dress that fell in flowing pieces to her knees. Her mask had itched her three hundred years ago, but through much use – it was now comfortably sitting on her face.

"How on earth is that staying on?" Ally asked from her perch on the end of Jayne's bed.

"Magic," she responded quickly. "It was actually your great-great-great grandmother who enchanted most of my masks. Half of my collection stay in place without any need for ties."

"That would be the older half."

"You think?"

"Anyway," Ally said, holding her Grimoire open in her hands. "This was mine before I gave up the magic. But before that, it was my mother's and my grandmother's and so on. I think it dates back to about 1780."

Jayne frowned as she rummaged through her jewellery. "I don't think that will have the spell I need then."

"What do you mean?"

"Your family has owed me this favour for over six hundred years. I doubt that it would be in a Grimoire that recent."

Ally looked back at the book with it's spine that was gradually peeling away. "How could it even still exist," she asked incredulously. "This one's already falling apart."

"Well, maybe Wilhelmina forgot to put a protection spell on it," Jayne said, naming Ally's ancestor that the book had first belonged to. "You could put one on it now. Save future expense."

"Uh…maybe later. Where am I supposed to find it?"

"I don't know," Jayne replied, walking across and picking up the wooden heart necklace and slipping it around her neck. It was in that moment that she realised she did actually know, but the knowledge hit her hard and she sort of wished it hadn't.

"Damn," she muttered. "Kara has it."

"Oh," Ally said about to say she could just ask her. Except at the last minute she remembered that Jayne had no idea that Kara remembered. A war raged on inside her as she tried to determine whether or not she should hide it.

"There's no way she could remember where she put it," Jayne murmured to herself as she paced. "I made it so she couldn't. Damon made it so she couldn't. Which means we're going to have to figure this out ourselves."

"Well, this should be exciting," Ally said drily, pulling her legs up and crossing them, staring intently across the room at Jayne as she thought aloud.

"I first had a hold of that Grimoire when I went looking for Anya, your ancestor, in Russia. She'd already made the deal and I'd just wanted some assurance in the form of a copy of the spell. Unfortunately, I never found her, but I found her book. I came back to find Kara, she stole the book when she was suicidal and God knows where she hid it. It could be scattered in pieces across Germany for all I know."

"But at least we have a starting point," Ally replied, standing up and taking her book. "It's a good thing I got my passport renewed otherwise we'd be stuck here for a while."

"Whoa!" Jayne exclaimed. "I didn't mean we should go and look for it. And definitely not now."

"Oh yeah. Party right?"

"Yes," Jayne continued. "And don't you have university?"

"It can wait," she said. "I just want this out of the way."

"Well," Jayne hesitated. "I have to go to the party, we're killing Katherine. I guess…we could go tomorrow…"

"To Germany?"

"Yes. But I'm bringing Hailey."

Ally sighed. "Fine, bring the vampire."

"Oi, that's my best friend you're sighing about."

"A vampire best friend? A tad redundant don't you think?"

"Oh, it helps. Especially when you need help with enemies. Vampires and witches are two of the most useful allies you could ever have."

"Or a slayer?"

"Or a slayer," Jayne agreed.


End file.
